A group of thousands of Chicago Public Schools students will get a chance to go after CPS in court for allegedly violating their constitutional religious freedom rights by forcing them to perform Hindu meditation ceremonies and then allegedly pressured them to conceal it from their parents.
U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, of the Northern District of Illinois court in Chicago, granted approval to former CPS student Kaya Hudgins to move ahead with a class action lawsuit on behalf of potentially 2,000-3,000 former CPS high school students who allegedly were pressured into participating in the so-called "Quiet Time" meditation program.
Hudgins and her attorneys with the firm of Mauck & Baker, of Chicago, filed suit against CPS in January 2023.
John W. Mauck
| mauckbaker.com
The lawsuit was one of several lodged against CPS over its partnership with the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The Foundation has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Fairfield, Iowa.
The Foundation has built a reputation over years for promoting the practices of transcendental meditation, boosted by testimonials from prominent Hollywood celebrities, including Martin Scorsese, Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Degeneres, among others.
From 2015-2019, the David Lynch Foundation partnered with the University of Chicago and CPS to institute the "Quiet Time" program at eight Chicago public high schools, including Bogan High School, where Hudgins attended.
According to court documents, the program invited students to participate in two 15-minute meditation sessions per school day.
However, according to lawsuits filed by Hudgins and others, the sessions were not truly voluntary, as students were allegedly instructed by CPS teachers to participate in the sessions and sign consent forms, committing to participate. Then, they were allegedly told by representatives of the Foundation to conceal their participation in the meditation sessions from their parents, particularly if their parents "were religious."
“A Chicago Public Schools teacher told me and my entire class to sign a consent form to participate in Quiet Time,” Hudgins wrote in a signed declaration. “My entire class and I signed the consent because we felt pressure to sign. Our teacher told us that we would get in trouble and be sent to the dean if we did not consent. The teacher also told us that not signing the consent would affect our academics. We also received the same kind of pressure to participate in the Quiet Time program on a regular basis.”
According to court documents, students allegedly were rewarded with pizza for promoting the meditation sessions, and at least one was offered money to participate in the sessions.
According to Hudgins' complaint, she was told non-participation in the program would negatively affect her grades and her academic record.
“I complained a few times to my teacher about not wanting to participate in the Quiet Time program,” Hudgins said, in a statement prepared by a spokesman through her lawyers. “Once, my teacher sent me to the dean’s office because I was questioning why we had to participate in the program. I felt angry and hurt because the school did not care whether or not I wanted to participate.”
Hudgins, who at the time was 16 years old, a student at Bogan High School and a practicing Muslim, said she found the practices promoted in the Quiet Time program to be "extremely offensive and very confusing."
While students were told the meditation practices were not religious in nature, Hudgins said her research later revealed the mantras she and other students were instructed to chant while meditating were actually reciting the names of Hindu gods.
Hudgins noted the school had made time for such apparently Hindu religious practices, she, as a Muslim, was not given time and space to pray five times each day, as Islam requires its adherents to do.
“My classmates and I were very hurt to learn how the school and the instructor had us participating in a religious practice without our knowledge," Hudgins said.
Hudgins filed suit in 2023, asserting CPS and the Foundation should pay for allegedly violating the religious freedoms of students.
Hudgins was not the only student to pursue such an action against CPS. Her fellow former CPS students, including Mariyah Green and Amontae Williams, also sued CPS. According to court records, both students said the Quiet Time program, foisted by the school district, violated their religious freedoms by all but compelling them to participate in Hindu religious practices.
Both students have reached individual settlements and received payment from CPS and the Foundation. According to a statement from the Mauck & Baker firm, Green received $150,000 through her settlement.
Williams' settlement was not disclosed in court documents.
However, CPS and the Lynch Foundation could soon face a much steeper payout over the Quiet Time program, after Kennelly granted approval for Hudgins to expand her lawsuit to include a class of potentially thousands more former CPS students at the eight high schools in which CPS instituted the Quiet Time program.
In his ruling, Kennelly said he believed Hudgins has done enough to back her claims that CPS may have violated the so-called Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the government from promoting a particular religion.
In this instance, Kennelly said he believed CPS' promotion of the meditation program could amount to coercion of students to participate in Hindu religious practices.
He agreed to establish the class to include all CPS students who participated in the Quiet Time program from 2015-2019 and reached the age of 18 years old on or after January 13, 2021.
CPS and the Foundation had argued a class action would be inappropriate in this case. They argued each student's claims should need to be evaluated on an individual basis, as each student's experience with the program differed. Some participated fully and willingly, others may have claimed they were coerced, and others may have not participated in the meditation, but still been in the room when it was practiced.
Further, CPS and the Foundation asserted Hudgins can't lead the class action, in part because they said she appeared to have filed suit allegedly without knowing the full extent of the Hindu nature of the program.
Kennelly noted "the defendants have ... gone to great lengths in their attempt to undermine Hudgins's credibility and her adequacy to represent the class in this litigation."
However, Kennelly said he was "unpersuaded," and said any discrepancies between Hudgins' initial understanding of the case and what she later presented "are minor and reflect the subjective nature of all witness testimony."
Kennelly also said he did not believe the differences among the student plaintiffs was enought to justify rejecting Hudgins' request for a class action.
Hudgins is represented by attorneys John W. Mauck and Judith A. Kott, of the Mauck & Baker firm; and Sorin A. Leahu, of the Leahu Law Group, of Chicago.
The Chicago Board of Education and CPS are represented by their in-house attorneys, Kaitlin T. Salisbury and Christina L. Rosenberg; and attorneys Tiffany S. Fordyce, David J. Stein, Naomi I. Lazar and Tyler L. Salway, of the firm of Greenberg Traurig, of Chicago.
The David Lynch Foundation is represented by attorneys James J. Sipchen, of Pretzel & Stouffer, of Chicago; and Mark L. Zaiger, of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.