Judge Rejects Effort to Claim that Yoga in Schools Is Religious Indoctrination

It's "Downward Dog" not "Downward God"

A San Diego Superior Court judge Monday rejected a claim by parents in the Encinitas elementary school system that teaching yoga in the schools is an improper attempt at religious indoctrination.

The ruling by Judge John Meyer, who heard the case without a jury, means that the Encinitas Union School District can continue to teach yoga as part of its health and exercise curriculum.

Dean Broyles, attorney for the Escondido-based National Center for Law and Policy, had filed a lawsuit on behalf of an Encinitas family with two children in the school system seeking to have the program ousted as a violation of state law prohibiting the teaching of religion in public schools.

Broyles said having yoga in the schools "represents a serious breach of the public trust" and is a violation of state law that prohibits religious instruction in public schools.