Editor’s note: This letter, dated Jan. 28, 2023 and addressed to John Haswell, superintendent of Shadyside School District, was also shared with The Times Leader as a letter to the editor.

Dear Superintendent Haswell:

As you know, The First Amendment reads in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

In other words there is “Separation of Church and State” in the United States.

The LifeWise Academy is trying to make an end run around our First Amendment Freedom of Religion rights.

LifeWise claim: “now more than ever schools must address character and mental health on top of providing academic instruction. LifeWise Academy comes alongside administrators and teachers as a supportive ally in the fight for better character development, mental health and academic achievement.”

What presumption!

Removing children from a public school and taken to a church violates the First Amendment Freedom of Religion “Establishment part.” A court would consider “whether the action excessively entangles religion and government. The concern here is that they do not so overlap and intertwine that people have difficulty differentiating between the two.”

Moreover, it is nonsense to say that pushing religion on a 7- to 9-year-old, of a variety of faiths, builds better character and academic achievement than a dedicated, credentialed teacher can.

What about the stigma on kids who are left out of the LifeWise character building program such as those whose parents choose not to participate or special ed kids that are unable?

In dealing with mental health of impressionable children, leave that to the professional psychiatrists and psychologists and special ed teachers.

According to the news article in The Times Leader on January 28, 2023, a Mr. Cooper is quoted claiming that the St. Clairsville-Richland City School District was planning on LifeWise.

That is not true.

Superintendent Walt Skaggs told me there was absolutely no plan to adopt the LifeWise program in the St. Clairsville-Richland City School District.

Shadyside must tell LifeWise “no thank you.”

William Bryant

St. Clairsviille