Last week, the school board for Everett Public School District voted to approve a final settlement agreement with LifeWise Academy, the K-12 Bible ministry that teaches students off campus.
Located in Washington, northeast of Seattle, Everett public schools oversees approximately 20,000 students, most of them in elementary schools, in Shohomish County.
The school board vote came after Judge Lauren King granted an injunction in April that favored most claims brought by LifeWise Academy. Among the group's complaints was what it saw as unlawful discrimination by school officials.
Judge King is a Joe Biden appointee serving the Western District of Washington.
Sarah Sweeny, a LifeWise staff member and program participant, filed the federal lawsuit in December of 2025, alleging violations of speech and the free exercise of religion by Everett public schools.
Sweeny and LifeWise were represented by attorneys for First Liberty Institute.
There were four central claims.
Weekly parental permission slips: The district required parents to submit a new permission slip every week rather than allowing authorization for an entire semester or year. LifeWise argued that this made participation unnecessarily difficult.
Exclusion from school-related events and advertising: The district excluded LifeWise from community resource fairs and restricted its printed flyers in school buildings, even though secular organizations were allowed similar access.
Restrictions on Bibles and religious materials: The lawsuit challenged a requirement that students returning from LifeWise instruction place materials they received, including Bibles, in sealed envelopes inside their backpacks. LifeWise argued that students were effectively being required to conceal their faith, including during free-reading periods.
Alleged hostility toward a Christian program: LifeWise cited statements by a school board member who publicly acknowledged animosity toward LifeWise. They argued that the comments and restrictions reflected discriminatory treatment based on religion.
The anti-religious school board member has been identified as Charles Adkins, whose remarks at a December 2025 board meeting found their way into the lawsuit.
"I would like to address the claim about whether my comments are motivated by animus toward LifeWise Academy," Adkins stated. "I want to make it very, extremely, abundantly clear, that yes, I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy."
Adkins, who is himself a 2016 graduate of Everett High, went on to allege the LifeWise ministry is attempting to create an "authoritarian theocracy."
In the federal lawsuit, First Liberty attorneys used Adkins' comments and the school board's actions — it created rules to block LifeWise's presence on school campuses — to make a case for religious discrimination.
The two sides reached a settlement requiring a public apology from the school district as well as policy changes; religious-liberty training for school board members; and $275,000 in attorney's fees.
Holly Randall, a First Liberty attorney, told Washington Watch” the school board's rules were challenged as "unconstitutional obstacles" to the free exercise of religion.
King’s injunction allows LifeWise to participate in community resource fairs and post flyers. It also forces the district to accept semester-long parental authorizations and allows students to read LifeWise material during periods when other non-academic reading is permitted.
She did not rule on the question of the district’s alleged constitutional violations, but her injunction is evidence that LifeWise was likely to succeed in court.
'Released-time' Bible study is settled law
A Supreme Court decision of more than 70 years ago — Zorach v. Clauson, in 1952 — formed the basis of First Liberty’s argument. In that case the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that New York City's released-time program, which allowed students to leave public school for religious instruction off campus with parental permission, did not violate the First Amendment.
New York City schools, as with Everett public schools, provided no instruction on campus and incurred no costs.
A settlement doesn’t carry the weight of a legal outcome, but Randall says it should send a message: King's preliminary injunction states the school board was openly hostile toward the student ministry.
“This case and the settlement, and the policy changes, the apology that the school district is being required to make, the attorneys' fees they're being required to pay," Randall said, "are really a reflection that school board members can't just say whatever they want from the dais.
“We’re hoping that this sends a message to board members across the country that they need to be careful when they're speaking about religious organizations and treat them equally, not with hostility,” she added.
