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Everett Schools Apologize for Making Kids Seal Away Bibles
A Washington school district that made LifeWise students keep their Bibles sealed in envelopes has settled a federal lawsuit, posted a public apology, and agreed to religious liberty training for its board.
For more than a year, elementary students in Everett, Washington, who attended an optional Bible class had to carry their Bibles home sealed in an envelope, tucked in their backpacks. On Tuesday, October 13, the Everett School Board voted to end the fight over that rule and others like it.
The district settled a federal lawsuit brought by LifeWise Academy, an Ohio-based nonprofit that runs off-campus Bible classes during the school day. According to The Everett Herald, the district will pay $275,000 from its general fund. LifeWise's lawyers at First Liberty Institute say that money covers attorney's fees. The district admitted no wrongdoing.
The non-monetary terms carry more weight. The board must take religious liberty training, change its policies on religious activities, and keep a written apology posted on the district website for six months.
What the district apologized for
The apology is signed by the board and Superintendent Ian Saltzman. It acknowledges that district policies made life harder for LifeWise families, especially around releasing students for class and handling the materials they brought back. As reported by The Christian Post, the board also apologized for comments made at public meetings about LifeWise, calling them offensive and hurtful to the families involved.
Here is what LifeWise challenged in court:
- A rule that LifeWise materials, Bibles included, stay sealed in students' backpacks once they returned to school.
- A permission slip parents had to fill out each time a child left for class, which LifeWise called needlessly burdensome.
- Being shut out of a community resource fair and barred from posting flyers where secular groups could.
The district had denied the allegations in court filings. But in April, U.S. District Judge Lauren King granted much of a preliminary injunction for LifeWise and wrote that the district had engaged in viewpoint discrimination. She ordered the district to fix the permission slip policy, let LifeWise into the fairs, and let kids read their LifeWise materials whenever they're allowed to read other non-school books. A trial had been set for April 2027. The settlement makes it unnecessary.
How released time Bible classes work
LifeWise didn't invent this idea. In 1952 the Supreme Court ruled in Zorach v. Clauson that public schools may release students during the day for religious instruction held off campus, as long as no public money pays for it and parents opt in.
LifeWise built a national program on that ruling. It now operates at just under 1,200 schools. In Everett, classes began in January 2025 at a church a few blocks from Emerson Elementary, during lunch and recess. Nobody is forced to go. Parents sign their kids up because they want them to learn the Bible.
First Liberty senior counsel Stephanie Taub called the deal a win "for all religious release time programs." That's the bigger story. Districts across the country are watching how these disputes end, and Everett's apology sets a clear marker: a school can't treat a Bible as contraband when it treats other books as ordinary.
Why a sealed Bible matters
An envelope sounds small. To a nine-year-old, it says the book in your bag is something to hide. Scripture gives parents the opposite assignment.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (KJV)
The Everett parents who stuck with this case took that charge seriously. They didn't storm a board meeting or demand anything special. They asked for the same access other optional programs already had, and they kept asking until they got it.
That kind of quiet courage runs all through Scripture. Our film The Persian Court's Deadliest Secret tells the story of Esther, a young woman inside a palace that was hostile to her people, who had to decide whether to speak up when staying silent felt safer. Mordecai's question to her, whether she had come to the kingdom for such a time as this, fits every parent who has had to stand in front of a school board for their kids. Watch it and notice how much of Esther's courage happens through proper channels, with patience and wisdom.
Deborah: Faith That Led
30 pages of real archaeology, Hebrew word study, a 7-day reading plan, and reflection on Deborah's story in Judges 4 and 5.
Sarah: Faith That Waited
29 pages of real archaeology, Hebrew word study, a 7-day reading plan, and reflection on Sarah's story in Genesis.
Hagar: The God Who Sees Me
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We covered another schoolhouse fight over Scripture when the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms headed toward the courts. Everett is a reminder that most of these battles are won by ordinary families who simply refuse to let their children's faith be pushed to the margins. And if you want a verse to send your own kids out the door with, our daily verse page has one every morning.
Key Takeaways
- Everett Public Schools in Washington settled LifeWise Academy's federal lawsuit after a board vote on October 13, 2026.
- The district will pay $275,000, which First Liberty says covers attorney's fees, without admitting wrongdoing.
- The board must take religious liberty training, revise its policies, and post a public apology for six months.
- The lawsuit challenged rules forcing students to keep Bibles sealed in backpacks, a per-class permission slip, and exclusion from community fairs.
- A federal judge found in April that the district had engaged in viewpoint discrimination.
- Released time religious instruction has been legal since the Supreme Court's 1952 Zorach v. Clauson decision.
🙏 Pray With Us
Lord, turn the hearts of this nation back to You and to Your Word. Give parents courage to teach their children the Bible, and give school leaders wisdom to protect every family's freedom to do it.
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