A woke Washington state school district is under fire after a new lawsuit alleges officials forced students to hide Christian Bibles and other ‘religious materials’ and a board member openly derided students of faith as belonging to an ‘organization of homophobic bullies.’ The explosive complaints were exposed in a late 2025 filing with the Western U.S. District Court.
The bombshell allegations out of Everett Public Schools pit the secular government school system against LifeWise Academy, a national nonprofit organization which prides itself on offering Bible classes for students during non-academic times such as lunch, recess, or after school. These instructional periods are typically led by parents and even held off campus.
In addition to the outrageous comments made by Board Director Charles Adkins, who further admitted holding ‘animus’ against Christian students and bizarrely feared they wanted to usher in ‘authoritative theocracy’ in America, the lawsuit contends school and district officials made it as difficult as possible for the students to communicate information about their group and gather with one another.
Indeed, if the lawsuit claims are true, LifeWise was prevented from joining other secular groups in community fairs and even from displaying simple flyers in the lobby. It should go without being said that any progressive student group did not receive such treatment. What’s more, students were reportedly barred from accessing their own private resources during any time of the day.
Furthermore, parents were made to sign permission slips every single week for the upcoming meeting. Typically, students are signed off one time and the permission slip is valid for the duration of a program; in this case, parents had to provide new written authorization on a weekly basis.
Sharing his abhorrent views at a public forum – a December 9th board meeting – the aforementioned Adkins went on a nastu diatribe against Christian students whom he is supposed to represent. “I want to make it very, extremely, abundantly clear, that yes, I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy.”
He went on to describe the group as a collection of horrible people. “It is an organization of homophobic bullies who are active and willing participants in the efforts to bring about an authoritarian theocracy,” before adding that he felt it was his job and moral duty to resist “Christian nationalism, fascism and White supremacy” while not enabling LifeWise to “further brainwash our kids to be full of hate, anger and ignorance.”
In a statement for the press on the matter, a senior counsel at First Liberty stated that “[s]chool officials cannot prefer religion over nonreligion, nor may they throw obstacles in the path of parents simply trying raise their children according to their religious convictions.” The counsel added that “[p]urposefully hindering the operation of an out-of-school program just because it’s religious is a direct violation of the First Amendment.”
An attorney for the school district released their own statement, writing: “With respect to LifeWise Academy itself, the District will continue to evaluate any requests to participate in District-sponsored events or to distribute its materials in compliance with its policies and procedures which comport with state and federal laws,” it read.
“Simply because your client disagrees that those policies and procedures should apply to it or to the families and students served by LifeWise Academy does not make them unconstitutional,” it continued.