What people are saying:

• Facebook User: When you enroll your children in Wadsworth schools it asks if there is a court ordered parenting plan/custody agreement and if so you upload it into their final forms. Based on this email it appears that the prior year they had a conflict and were able to resolve it, the children didn’t do lifewise. This year dad signed them up, they had been going and hadn’t heard from mom so they assumed there was no conflict. Then mom called on the 19th. The school then checked their parenting agreement, which must state that the parents have equal rights. So the school can not unenroll them when one parent who has just as much rights as the other one enrolled them. Therefore they said dad needs to unenroll the kids or she needs to get a court order saying she has final say or something.

  Also, you don’t enroll the children for lifewise through the school. The woman she tagged for lifewise and the email she used isn’t correct. To enroll and unenroll them you go directly through the lifewise program.

  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User You’re missing the entire point. WADSWORTH ALREADY KNEW THESE PARENTS DID NOT AGREE. That disagreement resulted in the children NOT attending LifeWise the previous year. So why was the father’s signature suddenly treated as sufficient to start releasing them?

    And here’s something else worth questioning. A 2023 Wadsworth LifeWise permission form explicitly stated that permission remained effective for as long as the child attended the local public school. We don’t know whether that language was still in use, but it certainly raises questions about what parents were told and whether the mother had any reason to believe the previous arrangement had changed. LifeWise isn’t the entity responsible for releasing children from public school during instructional hours. Wadsworth City Schools is. LifeWise’s form asks for a check and then it asks you to explain the custody order- it explicitly states if you have the right to speak for both parents. Makes that part complicated huh?

    The district knew there was a history of disagreement. It accepted the father’s permission anyway. Then, when the mother objected, SHE was told to get a court order. Why does his YES get acted upon while her NO requires litigation? You can explain the enrollment process all day long. It doesn’t answer that question. And neither has the district.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association I don’t know what it said in 2023, but that is not what it said this year. Permission was only for this year, no where did it say it was for every year that they attend school. And if the parents custody agreement says that mom and dad have equal custody then the school can not unenroll them from a program dad legally is allowed to sign them up for. It doesn’t matter that it’s religion. It would be the same as if mom signed them up for bear cub and dad said no I’d rather them not go. The school would have to send them if they’re enrolled. If dad called saying I don’t want them to go I want them unenrolled the school would say you have equal custody and mom enrolled them which she can legally do so unless she unenrolls them we have to send them to bear cub. It may not seem right because it’s the lifewise program, but it is that way for everything. If lifewise asks if he has the right to speak for both parents then she needs to contact them and say he signed the form without her knowledge and she doesn’t want them going and then they can possibly unenroll the children and once unenrolled the school doesn’t have to send them. But if they’re enrolled the school has to send them.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it is the school’s responsibility to take care of children during school hours. That includes their physical whereabouts, so whether you have to enroll/unenroll through lifewise or not, the school is still left holding the bag—yet another reason why RTRI shouldn’t be legal.
• Facebook User: Well, according to lifewise, BOTH parents are going to hell, so…
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User true. We wonder if Dad knows. 💁‍♀️
• Facebook User: Those poor kids
  • Facebook User: Facebook User thousands exposed to antisemitism, junk science, and bigotry all during school hours. Its very sad.
• Facebook User: Curious… would you be fighting for HIS “parental rights” if SHE had prevailed 🤔
  • Facebook User: Facebook User the pronouns don’t matter. He or she, religious indoctrination can be handled after school or on whichever parent wants it’s time.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Exactly, Ron. That’s the irony of the entire “parental rights” movement. They demand the right to make decisions for their own children while simultaneously trying to dictate what everyone else’s children should be taught, read, believe, and participate in.

    Apparently, parental rights are sacred until another parent exercises them differently. That’s the point. Keep commenting though.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association The question was: would you be fighting for HIS “parental rights” if SHE had prevailed. So, would you?
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User You’re confusing the right to teach your children your religion with the right to have a public school facilitate that instruction during the school day. Those are two very different things.

    If the children stopped attending LifeWise, their father would still be perfectly free to take them to church, teach them the Bible, and provide religious instruction outside school hours. Nobody is trying to take that right away.

    But apparently, you think his parental rights are being violated if the PUBLIC SCHOOL stops releasing the children to LifeWise. Meanwhile, the mother’s objection is treated as an inconvenience.

    👏And THAT is the problem with the entire “parental rights” argument used to promote these programs.

    You demand that public schools respect your religious choices, but when another parent makes a different choice, suddenly their rights are negotiable. Parental rights do not come with a complimentary entitlement to public school cooperation.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User who the pronouns belong to is irrelevant.
• Facebook User: Bluebonnet is the new Bible based curriculum in Texas. https://texasscorecard.com/state/tea-reports-first-year-gains-for-districts-using-new-bluebonnet-curriculum/
• Facebook User: On top of fixing this and pulling the kid out, Likewise shouldn’t even be in public schools