$2.6M settlement approved in suit claiming meditation program violated public school students' religious rights
A federal judge in Chicago has approved a $2.6 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging that the Chicago Public Schools violated the establishment clause when it required students to participate in transcendental meditation or observe a half hour of silence.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois approved the settlement in a May 7 docket entry.
The Chicago Board of Education and the David Lynch Foundation, which hired the meditation instructors, will pay the settlement. It will be distributed to 773 students who are or were students at eight schools that participated in the meditation program, according to a May 8 press release.
The defendants did not admit liability, according to a Jan. 17 motion for preliminary approval of the settlement.
The lead plaintiff in the suit, Kaya Hudgins, was a practicing Muslim at the time of the “Quiet Time Program,” according to prior coverage by Patch and Religion News Service and an April 2024 press release. Transcendental meditation was represented as nonreligious, but the mantras that students were taught to silently repeat were in fact words that honored or referenced specific Hindu deities, the suit had alleged.
The suit also alleged that students were required to complete a “Puja” initiation ceremony that included chants recognizing powers of Hindu deities. During the ceremony, instructors allegedly placed items around a picture of a former teacher of transcendental meditation.
In April 2024, Kennelly certified the class action suit under an establishment clause claim.
A lawyer for the students, John Mauck of Mauck & Baker, commented in the May 8 press release.
“This settlement vindicates the concerns of former students and parents that the initiation ceremony and daily meditation regime were effectively demonic invocation and thus violated the establishment clause of the Constitution,” Mauck said. “We hope this settlement will deter those who exploit young people, and that it will encourage the Chicago Board of Education to be wary of harming students by allowing wolves to prey on the sheep they are obligated to protect.”
Mauck also represented a Christian student who received a $150,000 settlement in a separate suit over the same program.
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