Meditate on this: Students win millions of dollars after school forces them into worship of pagan gods
A school district and a foundation launched by a late Hollywood director have been ordered to pay millions of dollars to students and their families for forcing their pagan religious beliefs on students.
It is the Chicago Board of Education and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace that must pay $2.6 million after students, including a Christian and a Muslim, were forced to take part in a “ceremony” that participants charge invoked Hindu deities.
A report in the Washington Stand said the ruling came from a federal judge who confirmed 773 former Chicago students will be affected by the ruling.
Chicago school officials had agreed to pay $170,000 to the leftist foundation to “provide Quiet Time Program services.”
Chicago Public Schools Pays $2.6M For Allegedly Forcing Students To Participate In Hindu Ritual! Kaya Hudgins, now 22, testified in a deposition that she was told participation in a ‘Quiet Time’ of Transcendental Meditation was mandatory. https://t.co/sBlAUJGJUp
— Paul Phillips (@carolinastreet) May 10, 2025
It happened at the Daniel Hale Williams Prep School of Medicine and Gage Park High School during 2018.
“The contract states the program would consist of ‘two restful 15-minute periods providing a counterbalance to the hyper-stimulating tension of urban culture. The key component of Quiet Time is an evidenced-based stress reduction and cognitive development technique known as Transcendental Meditation.”
One plaintiff, Kaya Hudgins, confirmed she was forced into what school officials claimed was “quiet time,” but in reality was a worship of a “Hindu ‘Puja.'”
It included religious paraphernalia and chanting of mantras citing Hindu gods.
[Eugene Volokh] Transcendental Remediation: $2.6M Settlement in Lawsuit Over Chicago Public School Transcendental Meditation Program https://t.co/boj576S3l7
— The Bork Report (@BorkReport) May 10, 2025
She told the Washington Stand, “I was just a teenager when I was pressured into a program I didn’t understand and wasn’t allowed to question. No student should ever be forced into a religious practice against their will — especially not in a public school. This settlement is a step toward accountability and a reminder that our constitutional rights don’t stop at the classroom door.”
The terms of the agreement required students who chose not to “meditate” to be allowed to read or rest.
But Hudgins, a Muslim at the time, explained school officials refused.
“Her case became a class action lawsuit open to every single student in the troubled Chicago Public Schools system herded into the ‘Quiet Time’ program from Fall 2015 through Spring 2019, and who turned 18 on or after January 13, 2021,” the report said.
Lawyer John Mauck fought the case and told the Washington Stand, “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.”
A ruling in a previous court case awarded $150,000 in legal fees to Mariyah Green, a Christian who made the same claims.
The report noted, “The Biden-Harris administration encouraged public schools to carry out non-Christian religious practices such as Transcendental Meditation as a way to promote equity. A report promulgated by the Biden-Harris administration in December 2023 titled ‘Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools’ states, ‘Classroom-based mindfulness education’ should include ‘[e]xperiential practice of mindful breathing, meditation, and mindful movement, such as yoga,’ as well as holding class ‘discussion[s] about how to practice mindfulness in everyday situations.'”