A CALIFORNIA appeals court on Friday, April 3, upheld a lower court ruling that incorporating yoga into physical education at a San Diego County school district does not violate the religious rights of students or their parents.
“While the practice of yoga may be religious in some contexts, yoga classes as taught in the district are, as the trial court determined, ‘devoid of any religious, mystical, or spiritual trappings,’” the court wrote in its 3-0 opinion.
Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock sued the Encinitas Union School District on behalf of their two children, claiming yoga promoted Hinduism and inhibited Christianity. They described yoga in their court briefs as “a Hindu religious exercise or practice that is simultaneously physical and religious.”
In the United States, yoga is typically taught as a series of poses with various levels of difficulty and breathing techniques. Its origins are disputed, although it is one of the major schools of thought in Hinduism.
Instructors in the nine schools in Encinitas taught poses adapted from Ashtanga yoga, a type that was popularized by world-renowned Indian yoga teacher Sri K. Pattabhi Jois who died in 2009. The poses are built around eight pillars, including union with the divine.
When parents complained in 2012 of religious overtones, the school district eliminated the program and any references to the spiritual or divine.
Paul Carelli IV, a lawyer for the district, said the practice was taught in a secular way to promote balance, flexibility and strength, according to Associated Press. He also said there were no rituals taking place in the classrooms and nobody was leading Hindu rites or worshipping the sun, the news agency reported.
“It is clear that while yoga may be practiced for religious reasons, it cannot be said to be inherently religious or overtly sectarian,” the court said. “In the absence of evidence that the District’s program advances religion, no religious coercion is present.”
Attorneys representing the Encinitas Union School District said in an email that the yoga program would continue.
The Sedlocks were disappointed with the ruling, Associated Press reported. Attorney Dean Broyles, chief counsel of the National Center for Law & Policy, a group that defends the religious rights of Christians, said the family is exploring its legal options.
“No other court in the past 50 years has allowed public school officials to lead children in formal religious rituals like the Hindu liturgy of praying to, bowing to, and worshipping the sun god,” Broyles said in a statement.
(With reports from Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend April 11-14, 2015 Sec. A pg.8)
