jefferson faceWritten by Don Byrd
Charisma News reports that plaintiff parents of students in the California’s Encinitas School District are appealing a judge’s ruling earlier this year that a yoga program does not violate the separation of church and state. The parents charge the program unlawfully forces an inherently religious activity into the public school curriculum.

“Our children are not religious guinea pigs and should never be subjected to such misguided religious experimentation,” said Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, a nonprofit based in Escondido, Calif., dedicated to defending religious freedom, traditional marriage and the sanctity of life.

Broyles filed a notice of appeal Oct. 30 in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of parents who oppose the yoga curriculum in the Encinitas Union School District.

The trial court judge disagreed (see my earlier post about the ruling here), finding the yoga program had been stripped of its religious associations in this instance, and had a legitimate secular purpose within the physical education curriculum.