What people are saying:

• Secular Education Association: For context, here is the mother’s original account, in her own words.
  We are sharing this because the questions it raises extend far beyond one family or one school district.

  👉If released-time religious instruction is truly voluntary, what happens when one parent explicitly refuses consent?

  👉And why are public school administrators allegedly telling a parent to compromise on religious instruction?

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association first of all you got to get rid of that husband. I don’t mean to be harsh, but when I read that you said you didn’t even know where they were for weeks and he was sneaking them to a location that you would never know to go to if there was an emergency?
    That is beyond endangering children and he should never have anything but supervised visits again.
    I’m sick of these men thinking that they can do any fucking thing they want to us and get away with it 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association talk yo the Ohio ACLU and similar groups.
  • Facebook User: What does “custodial parent for school” mean? I have never heard of that specification. But if she has something that says she is the one to make decisions about school issues, then she needs to address it that way, and threaten to take them to court. Or speak to her lawyer about that. And also about dad telling the kids to hide info from her.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User It means the kids attend the school district in which that parent resides. Unless things have changed since my kids were in school, it does not confer any extra rights or responsibilities to that parent. All other schooling decisions should by jointly made. This assumes a “standard” coparenting plan but any coparenting plan can say whatever so long as all provisions are legal and both parents agree.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association She should then start teaching them her POV about that instruction, so they’re not brainwashed. Teach them to question everything, based on facts. They won’t want them there if they do that.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association well she will have to take it to court. That’s not up to the school. Remembering the Bible story where the two supposed mothers fought over the child? It was suggested they cut the child in half. The real mother would give the child over to the false mother in order to protect the child from death. I pray God’s mercy over this mother who is trying to keep her child from knowing Jesus. I pray she keeps this child whole instead of pulling back and forth and tearing the kid/kids in two. Life’s too short to play tug of war with a child in order to hate a spouse and God. Don’t cut the child in half. The child obviously wants to go. Let them.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User No. These courses teach bullying and condemning children of other faiths. It is disgusting. Our tax funded schools should not aid and abet this sick proselytizing on PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOL TIME.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User that is an absolute lie and rumor being spread. Also it’s paid for by donations not taxes. You should really educate yourself on this before assuming.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User what?! Did you pull a muscle stretching that far?! Please use the post shown with the mother’s account to explain how you came to the following conclusions:
    1)this mother “is trying to keep her child from knowing Jesus”. Keeping a child in school during school hours, and not wanting them to go with this specific group does NOT give you any context about the mother’s intentions for her child’s faith education.

    2) she’s playing “tug of war with a child in order to hate a spouse and god”. Are you ok? Did you read the same account I did? One parent told children to lie to mom. That’s not very Christ like. Still she never claimed to hate either the father or god. Please tell me where in her account you found this.

    3)”the child obviously wants to go”? Where does it state that?

    Be specific. Support your statement.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User Information direct from the parents whose kids are bullied. And while donations may pay for the proselytizing, it does NOT pay for the lost opportunity costs of other things that can be done on school time. We send our children to school for instruction and building friendships and communities.

    If you want religious instruction, that’s what Sunday School or religious day schools are for.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User shut the fuck up
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s not during instruction time and “directly” doesn’t mean gossip from a third party. This is totally bogus. Kids have nothing to bully ABOUT as they learn John 3:16, that is completely inclusive to all children and people, including you. Religious education is actually happening in the school when world religions are taught ABOUT, so if you want to complain about that, remove that during instruction time. Lifewise doesn’t happen during any instruction time, it’s lunch and recess only. I’m not sure where you’re squirting your information but you’re way off here. I worked in elementary schools with Lifewise, I KNOW because I was there.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association dad gave consent. If they have shared parenting, he has equal say.
• Facebook User: I have doubts to the legitimacy of this story. This group, the SEA, has made it their mission to get the life wise program out of all schools. They seem to think they can tell all parents what their children can participate in. Why not use your own name? And let’s not pretend it’s so the school doesn’t retaliate against her children. If this is true the poster stated she meet with officials so the school would already know your students name.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User all RTRI during school hours. Education post-COVID is hard enough without adding something that should be handled during a parent’s time, after school, before school, on weekends, or during summer break. If a parent chooses to send their child to a public school that time should be protected.
    Honestly, its not the school I’d worry about. There’s oversight there.
    Its the fanatics that worry me.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s 30 minutes a week during lunch or study halls. Participants aren’t being removed from valuable class time. I respect all opinions, thoughts and conversations. I will say that not allowing children/parents to participate in this religious time by working to get this program removed from public schools will absolutely lead to lawsuits for religious discrimination.
• Facebook User: So tax dollars are being used to administer Lifewise in the PUBLIC schools and opening up avenues for litigation. Don’t complain about school levies and increased taxes and NO way is this legal!!😡
• Facebook User: Get religious training out of schools. Problem solved.
• Facebook User: A “no” from a parent for ANYTHING absolutely supersedes a “yes”. And then a decision is made. It could be a feild trip, a sport, dress code, etc. The parent that objects must be heard. Sure, its a custody thing. And thats why the NO should stand until its agreed upon by the parents or court. The school should have said NO until both custodial parents agreed or court sided with one. Bc if the court says the kid cant go, and they were sending them, thats a problem.
• Facebook User: Why the hell is a public school sending kids to religious programs in the first place??
• Facebook User: Sounds like a custody issue. Not saying that wadsworth isn’t at fault. The entire city is ran by liars and is corrupt beyond belief.
• Facebook User: Why does religious instruction have to happen during the school day? And why is a school even involved with this?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User because it’s a law that it can happen during the school day as long as it is off the premises and there is a way of transportation
• Facebook User: School board elections matter. Don’t elect people who allow this and it stops.
• Facebook User: I’d sue the school. Religious indoctrination is child abuse
• Facebook User: Mom said NO, it’s NO. Want religion in school GO TO A RELIGIOUS BASED SCHOOL.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User This is the program I was telling you and Christie about yesterday. I’m so glad Stow has banned this program from our schools, but the ban can just as easily be lifted if we get too many crazies on our school board.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User your school cannot ban this. Unfortunately. Our legislators mandates our schools to deal with this.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association Well they did something to prevent it from being available in our schools, thank goodness
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Facebook User local staff: Abigail Mitchell, Angela McCormick, Gracie Nielsen, Jewell Lamendola, Keith Schmader, Ken Sawders, Laurel Bobb, Mark Channon, Melissa Sage, Michael Robertson, Mike Sheehan, Rhonda Brode, Shannon Sinnett, Stephen Bauer, Tia Simmons, Yadira Nicole Yulfo

    Map.seculareducationassociation.org
    Searched Woodland Elementary

  • Facebook User: Facebook User nope, step 7. See above
• Facebook User: Wow, I’ve never heard of this before I had to look up what lifewise is … this is insanity !!! Hell no.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it gets sooo much worse. Read more stories.
• Facebook User: As a parent who has had their no ignored many times, and as someone who has been SA’d many times, it feels very violating and very similar to SA. It may not be the same extent of course but I can feel for this poor mother
• Facebook User: Because they thought they could get away with it. That’s the only reason they need.
• Facebook User: Why are kids leaving school to go to church?
• Facebook User: School should be school and church should be church. Public schools are not in the religion business.
• Facebook User: Lifewise needs to be an after school activity. Then, let’s see how many kids participate. Abolish Lifewise.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s 100% legal. It would be illegal to not allow or during school hours
• Facebook User: Is this issue and the other huge issues with Lifewise (losing kids, SA from people involved, etc.) enough to bring a lawsuit against the State of Ohio for forcing this on us?
• Facebook User: Don’t allow Lifewise, the gvt or schools to brainwash your children with their preferred religion. No means No! Separation of church and state!
• Facebook User: Living is Wadsworth, I am not at all surprised to read this.
• Facebook User: I’m so thankful my ex and I are on the same page about this garbage
• Facebook User: I have a co-parenting agreement with my ex and came across a very similar situation during COVID. I wanted my children to return to in-person instruction after remote learning for the fall semester; he did not. Since the school could not weigh in on the matter, they were forced to maintain precedent, which favored my ex. I had to fight him legally to get them reinstated to in-person learning.

  In this case, since precedent was NOT attending LifeWise classes, *that* is what the school should have upheld.

• Facebook User: This sounds like a custody issue that needs to go back to the court. Dad appears to be interfering with the agreement. In the meantime, the school administrators had no business interfering, either. With this conflict, the default should be that the kids don’t attend. The administrators were WAY out of their lane. Does the Secular Education Association have legal assistance available for this mother?

  (I have grandchildren in this school district. The more I think about this issue, the angrier I get.)

• Facebook User: If she has custodial custody for school issues, I’m pretty sure that the school system is operating outside the law by using the father’s permission slip. She should lawyer up and see how fast the school changes its tune. But I also think that the principal should be fired. We cannot have our public school administrators pushing religion on to children.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User so you are calling for lawyers and firing and you have zero idea what their custody agreement says..got it
• Facebook User: The school ‘picked’ the response they wanted, like a six year old asking for a cookie and have a parent on each side of the decision.
  SAD. The school not only FAILED, they created a conspiracy.