{"id":19442,"date":"2023-11-13T14:28:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=19442"},"modified":"2023-11-13T15:53:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T20:53:37","slug":"christian-student-receives-150k-settlement-after-school-allegedly-forced-her-into-demonic-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/11\/christian-student-receives-150k-settlement-after-school-allegedly-forced-her-into-demonic-practice","title":{"rendered":"Christian Student Receives $150K Settlement After School Allegedly Forced Her into \u201cdemonic\u201d Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/11\/Praying-in-School-Puja-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19460\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/11\/Praying-in-School-Puja-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A former student at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has received a settlement of $150,000 after alleging her former high school, Bogan Public High School, forced her into what she called \u201cdemonic\u201d religious practices through their Transcendental Meditation program, which was facilitated through the schools as a Quiet Time program through the David Lynch Foundation. Christian student Mariyah Green, now 21, attended Bogan from 2018 to 2019 in order to play basketball and volleyball. She alleged that the school\u2019s Quiet Time program was presented to her as \u201cpray or play.\u201d The Quiet Time program involved a Puja Initiation Rite, and allegedly, the ceremony involved students making obeisance to one of the Hindu deities displayed in a room \u201cto channel their powers through those present,\u201d <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2023\/nov\/1\/christian-student-awarded-150000-balked-meditation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">according<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0to Green\u2019s attorney, John Mauck. He called the program \u201ca thinly veiled Hinduistic religious program encompassing the practice of Transcendental Meditation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Green described how a transcendental meditation instructor would take 3 to 5 students aside and bring them into a darkened classroom to show them how to meditate. \u201cAs I go into the classroom, the setting was very uncomfortable for me. The lights were off in the classroom. There was a picture of a man, and at the moment, I didn\u2019t know from what religion it was. I just knew it wasn\u2019t my religion, and I\u2019m a Christian,\u201d Green <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bluemountaineagle.com\/life\/national\/i-dont-kneel-student-sues-chicago-schools-over-candlelit-rituals-during-class\/article_8d7ad263-7ed8-53ff-ac24-73824adc5f02.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">recalled<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. She was given a mantra to recite without being told what any of the words meant. After some research, Green found that some of the words were Hindu gods. She was also told not to share the mantra with anyone, including parents, as it might diminish its effect. \u201cThat gave me a red flag. I\u2019m not comfortable not being able to share this with my parents. They never gave me a consent to give to my parents. I was a minor at the time,\u201d she said. She pretended to have a knee injury to avoid bowing down to the statues. \u201cI don\u2019t kneel down for idols and pictures and things of that sort,\u201d she said. She alleged that her participation in the Quiet Time was linked to her grades, and that could have affected her ability to play sports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">With the settlement, Green will receive $75,000 from the David Lynch Foundation and another $75,000 from the district. Both have denied any wrongdoing. \u201cThose are unproven allegations. And those have been denied, and the court has never made any findings that they were accurate. The settlement was entered into in the interests of judicial economy and to put an end to this without everyone spending a lot of time and money in litigation,\u201d Bill Goldstein, an attorney for the David Lynch Foundation, told <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/christian-student-paid-150k-settlement-after-suing-over-tm.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Christian Post<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. \u201cThe District has always denied and continues to deny, any liability as a result of Quiet Time, and there has not been any finding of liability in this case by a judge or a jury,\u201d a spokesperson for the District\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bluemountaineagle.com\/life\/national\/i-dont-kneel-student-sues-chicago-schools-over-candlelit-rituals-during-class\/article_8d7ad263-7ed8-53ff-ac24-73824adc5f02.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">said<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. The district discontinued the Quiet Time program in 2020. \u201cThis was an egregious abuse of Mariyah\u2019s religious rights,\u201d Mr. Mauck said. \u201cThe innocuously labeled Quiet Time was developed by the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace in conjunction with the University of Chicago \u2013 both of whom profited from its implementation in Chicago Public Schools. Throughout its design and conduct, these institutions were all aware of the religious content of the Transcendental Meditation sessions, the like of which had already been removed from public schools elsewhere due to constitutional violations.\u201d Mauck stated that Green is not the only student to have sued, with a Muslim and Christian student also alleging violations of their rights. Green said she was happy with the resolution. \u201cI feel good because it\u2019s bringing attention to what they tried to force on me and make me do as a minor in school. Everything happens for a reason,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former student at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has received a settlement of $150,000 after alleging her former high school, Bogan Public High School, forced her into what she called \u201cdemonic\u201d religious practices through their Transcendental Meditation program, which was facilitated through the schools as a Quiet Time program through the David Lynch Foundation. Christian&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":19460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian Student Receives $150K Settlement After School Allegedly Forced Her into \u201cdemonic\u201d Practice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Chicago student has received a settlement after alleging her former high school forced her into what she called \u201cdemonic\u201d religious practices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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