By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A Wood County school district has been asked to stop violating Ohio law and U.S. Supreme Court rulings by allowing religious classes on school property.
Last month, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Elmwood School District, directing the district to stop allowing Lifewise Academy to hold its Bible classes on school property during school hours.
Elmwood has been violating the Ohio law and federal Supreme Court rulings since 2022, according to Keith Comer of FFRF. School officials have been alerted by many people that this is illegal, yet they continue to allow it, Comer stated in an email.
When contacted this week, Elmwood Superintendent Tony Borton said he could not speak about the letter from FFRF. But he did acknowledge that LifeWise Academy has been holding classes on school grounds during school hours.
“Yes, they rent a room in the old community center from us,” Borton responded in an email. The community center property is owned by the district.
The FFRF is a national nonprofit organization for the purposes of protecting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism.
According to the organization, a concerned community member reported that the Elmwood district is giving special treatment to LifeWise Academy, a religious release time program operating in the district. Since September 2022, the district has reportedly been renting a room in the Community Center on school property to LifeWise during the school day.
“Public school students have the First Amendment right to be free from religious indoctrination in their schools. Public schools may not in any way promote or otherwise show favoritism toward religion, nor may they coerce students to believe or participate in any religion or religious exercise,” the letter to Elmwood stated.
“A public school violates the Constitution when it promotes religion by giving special access to school property to a religious release time program, including LifeWise,” the letter continued. Ohio law states that release time courses must be conducted “off school district property.”
The Supreme Court held that release time is acceptable if school authorities “do no more than release students whose parents so request.” According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, this means school districts cannot:
▪ Expend public school funds and resources for the program.
▪ Provide release time programs with favored treatment. According to the letter, the community center space is not open to public use during school hours – except for the LifeWise program.
The letter, signed by Samantha Lawrence, staff attorney for Freedom From Religion Foundation, asked the district to inform the organization of the steps being taken to address the constitutional violation.
On the LifeWise Academy Elmwood Facebook page, a link is offered to how programs like LifeWise “operate legally, respectfully, and in partnership with parents and communities.
While the Life Wise Academy has been working with Elmwood Schools since 2022, it has only been available to Bowling Green City Schools students this school year. The BG Board of Education had previously acted on its belief that school hours should be spent on required subject matters.
But in August of 2025, the Ohio legislature passed a law making religion release time a requirement for programs like LifeWise Academy. Schools are now required to allow students to leave school grounds for religion classes during the school day.
The law, House Bill 8, states that programs like the Christian-based LifeWise have the authority to remove students from schools during non-instructional times.
“This requires districts to have a policy in place, allowing these type of organizations to have religious release time for students,” Bowling Green Superintendent Ted Haselman said.
Haselman said the LifeWise Academy in Bowling Green does not use school grounds, and is only permitted to take children during lunch or recess. Any class that is a graded subject or state mandated curriculum – including physical education, music and art – is considered instructional, he said.
“School time is precious,” Haselman said this week. “With LifeWise limited to lunch and recess, we’re not giving up education time.”
LifeWise reportedly told the district that it would like to start offering the program for students at one elementary this past fall – identifying Kenwood Elementary as that first school. The next school selected by LifeWise has been Conneaut Elementary, Haselman said.
Haselman stressed that the state legislation is requiring the district to comply with LifeWise requests. There are some rules, such as:
- The program is voluntary, with written permission required by parents.
- The program has to take place off school property.
- LifeWise has to provide transportation to the program and back to school.
- The school district is to provide no funding or resources for the religious program.
“The district is not responsible for anything that happens when they are offsite,” Haselman said. Parents are required to sign off on liability.
When BG Board of Education was approached by LifeWise representatives in 2023 about allowing the group to pull students from school for religious instruction, the board balked at the idea. Board members agreed the idea that students leaving school to attend religious instruction won’t be missing anything important was very wrong.
Since the Ohio Department of Education continues to add more requirements for public schools, the board agreed in 2023 that taking away time during the school day would be counterproductive.
The website for LifeWise Academy states its curriculum is designed to take students through the entire Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, over the course of five years.
While LifeWise officials have promoted the program as teaching children to have good morals, Haselman pointed out that BG City Schools’ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program already provides instruction on character development.
“We have a really good program, he said.
In the past, BG school officials have suggested that LifeWise offer its instruction during non school hours. But some parents objected, saying they didn’t want their children to be denied the opportunity to participate in afterschool activities like sports.
Other Bowling Green parents voiced concerns about the inclusivity of the LifeWise program, which focuses only on the Christian faith. LifeWise Founder and CEO Joel Penton has acknowledged that the program aims to reach non-Christian students with lessons tailored for “unchurched” children.
LifeWise Academy has stated it does not have legal rights to make the curriculum available to the public free of charge. However, anyone may request a temporary review of the full curriculum at lifewise.org/curriculum.
