October 1, 2024 • 15 mins
Westerville schools rescind program to allow Bible studies
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Westerville School Board rescinds policy life wise us to
(00:04):
teach Bible during the school day. That's the headline on
the Columbus Dispatch. And the program director for life Wise,
her name is Jennifer Jury. She's joining us right now.
And I know you got a lot going on, Jennifer,
and thank you so much for jumping on with us.
Like you, Josh and I both are disappointed that this
is exactly what ended up happening. This policy, according to
(00:27):
this article, had been in place for two years. LifeWise
last year had nearly three hundred students enrolled in the
Westerville district of around I don't know, they're saying about
fifteen thousand students or so. And you know, I was
just talking to Zach Attack and his child actually attends
LifeWise and some of his friends, and he talked about
they're in the Jonathan Alder School district. But he was
(00:48):
saying how they love it and all of that. But
I don't know. Again, welcome to the show. Thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Hey, thanks for having me on today. Thanks for taking
the time to talk about this.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, it's concerning to say the least. And set this
up for us. How how did this all start? Why
did why Westerville? Why did they start this? I mean,
do you have any idea what could be going on?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, that's a good question. The RTRI policy that
released time Religious Instruction policy has been in place in
Westerville since two thousand and nine. So our Life Wise
program began in twenty twenty two in the fall, and
at that time we were instructed by the superintendent at
the time that we could operate within that policy and
(01:36):
just for us to work directly with the school principles
to set up scheduling for our program. So that's what
we did back in twenty twenty two. We started out
with just two schools, just a handful of students, and
then over the two years, we grew into six schools,
you know, serving six schools with like you said, just
under three hundred students. So at the time, we thought
(01:56):
we had a really good working relationship. Things were going smoothly.
Parents in the community were very pleased with the program.
So I think what happened is there is an outspoken
group of opposition and they have been contacting local superintendents
and school districts and just raising questions about liability distraction
the content of our teaching, and I think that's what
(02:19):
got the board talking about our program in a way
that hadn't happened yet.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You know, one of the things that I saw in
this article too, Jennifer, was it is, I mean the
children learn messages used to bully other students who are
not Christian or are in non traditional families, and that
children are encouraged to recruit their classmates to join the program.
That was one of the things that was printed in
(02:45):
this article. And when I saw learn messages used to
bully other students, that goes one hundred and eighty degrees
against what Life Wise stands for. And I just I
was scratching my head, going, these people are delusional. Where
have they come at up with this stuff?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You know, that's a good question, As you said, that
flies in the face of everything we teach at LifeWise,
which is, you know, Bible based character lessons about things
like compassion and kindness and love and respect. And so
I really think this group is repeating hearsay maybe a
few isolated incidents of kids being kids, not because we've
(03:22):
taught them that, but because they take things a step
too far sometimes in their own way, and so then
that gets blown out of proportion. People are just repeating
things that they've heard. All the people that we've seen
at these school board meetings speaking against us, As far
as I know, they've never seen a LifeWise classroom, their
children have never participated. So what they're saying are things
(03:43):
that they are just repeating.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You know, Jennifer, they're sticking by this claim that it's
not about singling out any one religion. However, dare I say,
had this been a Muslim Islamic program, I think they
would been terrified to touch it out of fears of
being called racist. It seems like to me, especially when
(04:06):
I listen, if I listen closely to some of the
parents who led the opposition, if you read between the
lines of what they're actually saying, what they're saying is.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
We don't you know, we don't.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like this because Christianity teaches this, that, and the other,
and we don't believe in that. Well, that to me
is signaling out a single religion, because this is a
Christian program, and this nonsense that they're trying to say, well,
we could have just countless religious programs and the whole
school day would be bogged down. That's not true, is it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, from the research that we've done, like I said,
since two thousand and nine when the RTRI policy went
into effect in Westerville, as far as we know, there
is only one release time religious instruction program using that
policy in all these years and currently, and that is LifeWise.
So we don't see a long line of other programs
lining up and causing disruption in the school day. You know,
(05:06):
it takes a lot of logistics to get the kids
in and out smoothly and to hire staff and to
have safe buses. And we've done all that hard work
and so we know how difficult it is to put
a program like that together that runs well and with excellence.
And we did that for two years, so we understand
why there aren't a whole you know, plethora of other
programs doing that same thing. And they're telling you right.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And Jennifer, I'm telling you right now, you know, clarify this.
So people out there going, yeah, but it's a public school.
This is all privately funded. Now, a single dime is
going from your pairs us to fund this program.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Correct, Absolutely everything is privately funded. We have scores of
individual donors who sponsor students for a few dollars a month.
We have churches that you know, have made us part
of their local mission budget. So our funding comes from
our community and from supporters that love what we're teaching.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It is so clear to me exactly the hate exactly.
It is so clear hearing Jennifer, Jennifer Jury's joining us
program director for Life Wise. It is so clear to me, Jennifer,
listening to you speak about this and shedding more light
on it, exactly what's happening here and man less and
less of any kind of anything that would be considered
(06:24):
good or pure, and Darren call it Christian With our kids,
you can't have enough of that in this day and age,
especially with social media. The bullying, I mean, it's on
a different level. It's next level. Bullying was something that
a lot of kids unfortunately suffered with, and then you
start getting social media involved and so on, the kids
(06:44):
think about it, with the school shootings, you go through
the whole list of things. How different it is for
our children right now, just in the last ten fifteen
years as opposed to when we went to school. And
you can't have enough of this, in my estimation, you
can't have them enough of this. Also one thing too
that I when I was looking through this article, Jennifer,
(07:05):
it says you were saying that this was fueled in
part by and in addition to you, of course you
being disappointed by the decision, you were saying that it
was fueled in part by how much misinformation has been
shared about our program. And I kind of wanted to
know what the misinformation that was being shared so we
could kind of shine some light on that set the
(07:28):
record straight, because there are a lot of people. We
reach a lot of people, and I want them to
hear and dare I say it some of the parents
who you know, may have been on the fence or
maybe we're not even really kind of informed on something
like this in the Westerville school district. I went to
Westerville Schools, I went to Westernville North, I went to
Walnut Springs, and I go I went to Whittier. We
(07:49):
can go way back, but I'm very familiar with Westerville
City Schools, and I just want to know some of
the misinformation that was shared about the program LifeWise, What
could they possibly have villainized life wise about.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, it has been said, you know, there are questions
about the safety of our staff and volunteers being carefully
vetted and background checked, and I just want to clarify
set the record straight. Everyone that we hire has gone
through a thorough background screening, criminal background checks, you know, interviews,
references are called. These are people that are highly qualified.
If they're teaching, they have previous teaching experience, either in
(08:27):
a public school or private school setting, or working with
children's ministry for an extensive number of years. And then
the volunteers are people that love kids and that are
safe and ready to help. Another thing that's being said
is that it's disruptive, but what we're hearing from families, educators,
community members is that the kids are coming back to
school with a positive impact. They're coming back refreshed, ready
(08:50):
to engage, ready to participate more appropriately in their school day,
with better behavior. Since we do this during lunch and recess,
we take the kids and they eat their lunch together
with their peers. They're doing discussion time, they get up
and do large motor running around activities and play. We
do a lot of the same things that they would
be doing at the school, but it's centered around that
(09:13):
character lesson that Bible lesson that they're having while they're
out of the classroom. So just like their peers, they
come back into the classroom from recess from lunch ready
to plug back in for the rest of their academic days.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
With regard to the the vetting and the you, the employees,
the people who work and run lifelike, was there an incident?
I mean, why is that being as something they're nitpicking
on or spotlighting if there wasn't an incident, or or
was there something that maybe tip them off or I'm
(09:46):
just trying to understand what it seems like. It's just
they're like, hey, we'll just try to go every angle
to try to dismantle this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, that's a good question. There was an incident where
I think it was in a community in northern Ohio
and individual was hired by LifeWise to become the program
director of a new program that wasn't up and running yet.
And this person that was being hired didn't fully disclose
some incidents from their past. Allegations had been brought against
(10:14):
this person, but no criminal charges were filed, so when
the background check was run and the criminal background screening
was done, none of that surface and so you know,
once things came to light, she was immediately let go
by LifeWise. She never worked with LifeWise students. She again,
her program wasn't live when she was hired, and so
because of that, you know, the headlines are emphasizing that
(10:36):
this person who had a shady past was hired by
LifeWise to work with students. But that's not the whole truth.
And of course, as soon as the truth was found out,
she was dismissed and never did work with Lifewive students.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I just I keep coming back, Jennifer. It just seems
like this is another attack guysed in the you know, oh,
we're doing us out of concern on Christianity, on people
of faith, and you know this idea that you know
they kept referencing, I hear, well, people with non traditional families. Okay,
(11:12):
just say what you want to say. You mean you
mean like gay or lesbian families. Okay, if my faith
teaches me that homosexual I believe homosexuality is a sin,
but I also don't. I also have a lot of
gay friends, and I just they're good people, but it
is not Christianity is not incompatible with treating people if
(11:36):
they are in the LGBT community with compassion, respect and kindness.
Christ demands it of us as a matter of fact.
And I think when they keep bringing us back about
non traditional families over and over, how many times I've
heard that in the last week covering watching the developments
in the story, I just feel it's a veiled attack
(11:57):
against our faith and the things that we are convictions.
And for them to guise it in this sense of like, oh,
we're looking out, we're concerned for the kids, I think
I think it's a load of garbage, to be frank.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, and that topic has come up several times and again,
I don't know what prompted it to begin being brought up.
But to be clear, those topics are never covered in
our curriculum. We're dealing with elementary students. We're teaching the Bible,
stories and character. You know, they're learning very basic Biblical truths.
Those are never the topics of our curriculum. And every
(12:30):
student in the entire school is welcome to attend Life
Wise if their parents want to enroll them, and so
no one is excluded. Every person that comes in the
door of the classroom is made to feel welcomed and
celebrated and loved, and so I'm not sure where those
rumors are coming from. It certainly is not from the
Westerville classroom. I'm very engaged with all of our classes,
(12:50):
and in two years, I'm not aware of a single
conversation in the classroom that has ever come up about
these topics with any of our classes.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Jennifer Jury, program director for Life Wise Jennifer, I would
ask you to not give up, and it sounds like
you're not going to. I don't know about Westernville City Schools,
but clearly you guys are doing a good thing, and uh,
unfortunately it sounds like you know, you take you take
incoming fire from all sides when you're trying to do
the right thing. It seems like in this lifetime. But
(13:21):
we would love to continue helping you in any way
that we can, because I feel like this is a
pure effort in this situation, and it's is incredibly disappointing
that you you have school districts starting to do this,
especially when it's it's voluntary. You're not forcing yourselves on people.
This is so silly, and to try to again disguise
(13:43):
whatever their concerns are. We know what's really beneath and
I think a lot of America is starting to really
understand what is behind this crazy movement right now. And
uh and just don't give up, I would say, and
we'll help you anyway that we can.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well, we appreciate that, and I think this situation in
Westerville just really underscores why we're hoping the state legislator
will work expediently and get house build for forty five
past that will require school districts to provide release time
religious instruction as an option for their families, and many
states around US have already done that, including Indiana. So
(14:22):
we're we're hoping to see that happen here in Ohio
and then hopefully Westerville can have a LifeWise program once
again in the future.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
How can it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
In the state House get get this done in the
state House?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Please?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
How can the person listening right now if they want
to do something as far as house built for forty five?
Is there anything that you know the listener could do
right now that could maybe help this situation or is
it just kind of a wait and seek anything.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Absolutely, we highly recommend that if this is something folks support,
that they go online look up. Who do you need
to email And it's real easy to find it. Find
your state legislators and email that and tell them that
you support the passage of House Bill four forty five
as quickly as possible, hopefully even during this you know,
this lame duck session even we would love to go through.
(15:11):
So yeah, we highly encourage everyone to contact the legislators
and let them know of their support for this.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Very good program director for Life Wise, Jennifer Jerry, Jennifer,
we thank you for I know it was kind of
last minute, so happy you jumped on with us, and
we're giving us a few minutes and you know, flying
the flag here and try to move this forward. But
House Bill four four to five In case anybody's listening again,
and Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on with us.
I suspect we'll probably talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, thanks again for your time.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You're welcome. Thank you so much. Traffic and weather together
from day and night.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
He
The Westerville School Board rescinds policy life wise us to
(00:04):
teach Bible during the school day. That's the headline on
the Columbus Dispatch. And the program director for life Wise,
her name is Jennifer Jury. She's joining us right now.
And I know you got a lot going on, Jennifer,
and thank you so much for jumping on with us.
Like you, Josh and I both are disappointed that this
is exactly what ended up happening. This policy, according to
(00:27):
this article, had been in place for two years. LifeWise
last year had nearly three hundred students enrolled in the
Westerville district of around I don't know, they're saying about
fifteen thousand students or so. And you know, I was
just talking to Zach Attack and his child actually attends
LifeWise and some of his friends, and he talked about
they're in the Jonathan Alder School district. But he was
(00:48):
saying how they love it and all of that. But
I don't know. Again, welcome to the show. Thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Hey, thanks for having me on today. Thanks for taking
the time to talk about this.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, it's concerning to say the least. And set this
up for us. How how did this all start? Why
did why Westerville? Why did they start this? I mean,
do you have any idea what could be going on?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, that's a good question. The RTRI policy that
released time Religious Instruction policy has been in place in
Westerville since two thousand and nine. So our Life Wise
program began in twenty twenty two in the fall, and
at that time we were instructed by the superintendent at
the time that we could operate within that policy and
(01:36):
just for us to work directly with the school principles
to set up scheduling for our program. So that's what
we did back in twenty twenty two. We started out
with just two schools, just a handful of students, and
then over the two years, we grew into six schools,
you know, serving six schools with like you said, just
under three hundred students. So at the time, we thought
(01:56):
we had a really good working relationship. Things were going smoothly.
Parents in the community were very pleased with the program.
So I think what happened is there is an outspoken
group of opposition and they have been contacting local superintendents
and school districts and just raising questions about liability distraction
the content of our teaching, and I think that's what
(02:19):
got the board talking about our program in a way
that hadn't happened yet.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You know, one of the things that I saw in
this article too, Jennifer, was it is, I mean the
children learn messages used to bully other students who are
not Christian or are in non traditional families, and that
children are encouraged to recruit their classmates to join the program.
That was one of the things that was printed in
(02:45):
this article. And when I saw learn messages used to
bully other students, that goes one hundred and eighty degrees
against what Life Wise stands for. And I just I
was scratching my head, going, these people are delusional. Where
have they come at up with this stuff?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You know, that's a good question, As you said, that
flies in the face of everything we teach at LifeWise,
which is, you know, Bible based character lessons about things
like compassion and kindness and love and respect. And so
I really think this group is repeating hearsay maybe a
few isolated incidents of kids being kids, not because we've
(03:22):
taught them that, but because they take things a step
too far sometimes in their own way, and so then
that gets blown out of proportion. People are just repeating
things that they've heard. All the people that we've seen
at these school board meetings speaking against us, As far
as I know, they've never seen a LifeWise classroom, their
children have never participated. So what they're saying are things
(03:43):
that they are just repeating.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You know, Jennifer, they're sticking by this claim that it's
not about singling out any one religion. However, dare I say,
had this been a Muslim Islamic program, I think they
would been terrified to touch it out of fears of
being called racist. It seems like to me, especially when
(04:06):
I listen, if I listen closely to some of the
parents who led the opposition, if you read between the
lines of what they're actually saying, what they're saying is.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
We don't you know, we don't.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like this because Christianity teaches this, that, and the other,
and we don't believe in that. Well, that to me
is signaling out a single religion, because this is a
Christian program, and this nonsense that they're trying to say, well,
we could have just countless religious programs and the whole
school day would be bogged down. That's not true, is it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, from the research that we've done, like I said,
since two thousand and nine when the RTRI policy went
into effect in Westerville, as far as we know, there
is only one release time religious instruction program using that
policy in all these years and currently, and that is LifeWise.
So we don't see a long line of other programs
lining up and causing disruption in the school day. You know,
(05:06):
it takes a lot of logistics to get the kids
in and out smoothly and to hire staff and to
have safe buses. And we've done all that hard work
and so we know how difficult it is to put
a program like that together that runs well and with excellence.
And we did that for two years, so we understand
why there aren't a whole you know, plethora of other
programs doing that same thing. And they're telling you right.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And Jennifer, I'm telling you right now, you know, clarify this.
So people out there going, yeah, but it's a public school.
This is all privately funded. Now, a single dime is
going from your pairs us to fund this program.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Correct, Absolutely everything is privately funded. We have scores of
individual donors who sponsor students for a few dollars a month.
We have churches that you know, have made us part
of their local mission budget. So our funding comes from
our community and from supporters that love what we're teaching.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It is so clear to me exactly the hate exactly.
It is so clear hearing Jennifer, Jennifer Jury's joining us
program director for Life Wise. It is so clear to me, Jennifer,
listening to you speak about this and shedding more light
on it, exactly what's happening here and man less and
less of any kind of anything that would be considered
(06:24):
good or pure, and Darren call it Christian With our kids,
you can't have enough of that in this day and age,
especially with social media. The bullying, I mean, it's on
a different level. It's next level. Bullying was something that
a lot of kids unfortunately suffered with, and then you
start getting social media involved and so on, the kids
(06:44):
think about it, with the school shootings, you go through
the whole list of things. How different it is for
our children right now, just in the last ten fifteen
years as opposed to when we went to school. And
you can't have enough of this, in my estimation, you
can't have them enough of this. Also one thing too
that I when I was looking through this article, Jennifer,
(07:05):
it says you were saying that this was fueled in
part by and in addition to you, of course you
being disappointed by the decision, you were saying that it
was fueled in part by how much misinformation has been
shared about our program. And I kind of wanted to
know what the misinformation that was being shared so we
could kind of shine some light on that set the
(07:28):
record straight, because there are a lot of people. We
reach a lot of people, and I want them to
hear and dare I say it some of the parents
who you know, may have been on the fence or
maybe we're not even really kind of informed on something
like this in the Westerville school district. I went to
Westerville Schools, I went to Westernville North, I went to
Walnut Springs, and I go I went to Whittier. We
(07:49):
can go way back, but I'm very familiar with Westerville
City Schools, and I just want to know some of
the misinformation that was shared about the program LifeWise, What
could they possibly have villainized life wise about.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, it has been said, you know, there are questions
about the safety of our staff and volunteers being carefully
vetted and background checked, and I just want to clarify
set the record straight. Everyone that we hire has gone
through a thorough background screening, criminal background checks, you know, interviews,
references are called. These are people that are highly qualified.
If they're teaching, they have previous teaching experience, either in
(08:27):
a public school or private school setting, or working with
children's ministry for an extensive number of years. And then
the volunteers are people that love kids and that are
safe and ready to help. Another thing that's being said
is that it's disruptive, but what we're hearing from families, educators,
community members is that the kids are coming back to
school with a positive impact. They're coming back refreshed, ready
(08:50):
to engage, ready to participate more appropriately in their school day,
with better behavior. Since we do this during lunch and recess,
we take the kids and they eat their lunch together
with their peers. They're doing discussion time, they get up
and do large motor running around activities and play. We
do a lot of the same things that they would
be doing at the school, but it's centered around that
(09:13):
character lesson that Bible lesson that they're having while they're
out of the classroom. So just like their peers, they
come back into the classroom from recess from lunch ready
to plug back in for the rest of their academic days.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
With regard to the the vetting and the you, the employees,
the people who work and run lifelike, was there an incident?
I mean, why is that being as something they're nitpicking
on or spotlighting if there wasn't an incident, or or
was there something that maybe tip them off or I'm
(09:46):
just trying to understand what it seems like. It's just
they're like, hey, we'll just try to go every angle
to try to dismantle this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, that's a good question. There was an incident where
I think it was in a community in northern Ohio
and individual was hired by LifeWise to become the program
director of a new program that wasn't up and running yet.
And this person that was being hired didn't fully disclose
some incidents from their past. Allegations had been brought against
(10:14):
this person, but no criminal charges were filed, so when
the background check was run and the criminal background screening
was done, none of that surface and so you know,
once things came to light, she was immediately let go
by LifeWise. She never worked with LifeWise students. She again,
her program wasn't live when she was hired, and so
because of that, you know, the headlines are emphasizing that
(10:36):
this person who had a shady past was hired by
LifeWise to work with students. But that's not the whole truth.
And of course, as soon as the truth was found out,
she was dismissed and never did work with Lifewive students.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I just I keep coming back, Jennifer. It just seems
like this is another attack guysed in the you know, oh,
we're doing us out of concern on Christianity, on people
of faith, and you know this idea that you know
they kept referencing, I hear, well, people with non traditional families. Okay,
(11:12):
just say what you want to say. You mean you
mean like gay or lesbian families. Okay, if my faith
teaches me that homosexual I believe homosexuality is a sin,
but I also don't. I also have a lot of
gay friends, and I just they're good people, but it
is not Christianity is not incompatible with treating people if
(11:36):
they are in the LGBT community with compassion, respect and kindness.
Christ demands it of us as a matter of fact.
And I think when they keep bringing us back about
non traditional families over and over, how many times I've
heard that in the last week covering watching the developments
in the story, I just feel it's a veiled attack
(11:57):
against our faith and the things that we are convictions.
And for them to guise it in this sense of like, oh,
we're looking out, we're concerned for the kids, I think
I think it's a load of garbage, to be frank.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, and that topic has come up several times and again,
I don't know what prompted it to begin being brought up.
But to be clear, those topics are never covered in
our curriculum. We're dealing with elementary students. We're teaching the Bible,
stories and character. You know, they're learning very basic Biblical truths.
Those are never the topics of our curriculum. And every
(12:30):
student in the entire school is welcome to attend Life
Wise if their parents want to enroll them, and so
no one is excluded. Every person that comes in the
door of the classroom is made to feel welcomed and
celebrated and loved, and so I'm not sure where those
rumors are coming from. It certainly is not from the
Westerville classroom. I'm very engaged with all of our classes,
(12:50):
and in two years, I'm not aware of a single
conversation in the classroom that has ever come up about
these topics with any of our classes.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Jennifer Jury, program director for Life Wise Jennifer, I would
ask you to not give up, and it sounds like
you're not going to. I don't know about Westernville City Schools,
but clearly you guys are doing a good thing, and uh,
unfortunately it sounds like you know, you take you take
incoming fire from all sides when you're trying to do
the right thing. It seems like in this lifetime. But
(13:21):
we would love to continue helping you in any way
that we can, because I feel like this is a
pure effort in this situation, and it's is incredibly disappointing
that you you have school districts starting to do this,
especially when it's it's voluntary. You're not forcing yourselves on people.
This is so silly, and to try to again disguise
(13:43):
whatever their concerns are. We know what's really beneath and
I think a lot of America is starting to really
understand what is behind this crazy movement right now. And
uh and just don't give up, I would say, and
we'll help you anyway that we can.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well, we appreciate that, and I think this situation in
Westerville just really underscores why we're hoping the state legislator
will work expediently and get house build for forty five
past that will require school districts to provide release time
religious instruction as an option for their families, and many
states around US have already done that, including Indiana. So
(14:22):
we're we're hoping to see that happen here in Ohio
and then hopefully Westerville can have a LifeWise program once
again in the future.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
How can it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
In the state House get get this done in the
state House?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Please?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
How can the person listening right now if they want
to do something as far as house built for forty five?
Is there anything that you know the listener could do
right now that could maybe help this situation or is
it just kind of a wait and seek anything.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Absolutely, we highly recommend that if this is something folks support,
that they go online look up. Who do you need
to email And it's real easy to find it. Find
your state legislators and email that and tell them that
you support the passage of House Bill four forty five
as quickly as possible, hopefully even during this you know,
this lame duck session even we would love to go through.
(15:11):
So yeah, we highly encourage everyone to contact the legislators
and let them know of their support for this.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Very good program director for Life Wise, Jennifer Jerry, Jennifer,
we thank you for I know it was kind of
last minute, so happy you jumped on with us, and
we're giving us a few minutes and you know, flying
the flag here and try to move this forward. But
House Bill four four to five In case anybody's listening again,
and Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on with us.
I suspect we'll probably talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, thanks again for your time.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You're welcome. Thank you so much. Traffic and weather together
from day and night.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
He
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