A class action lawsuit claiming Chicago high school students were coerced into practicing a Hindu ritual invoking the religion’s deities ended Wednesday when a judge signed off on a $2.6 million settlement.
Both Chicago Public Schools and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace are named in the lawsuit and each will pay $1.3 million of the settlement.
According to the American Bar Association Journal:
“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.
“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.”
“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,” said Attorney John Mauck of Mauck & Baker, who represented the student class, along with court-appointed lead plaintiff Kaya Hudgins.
Hudgins was a practicing Muslim at the time she was allegedly subjected to Hindu indoctrination by the Chicago School System.
Mauck says the so-called “Quiet Time” program was “a thinly veiled Hinduistic religious program.”
In sworn statements, the former students said they were bullied, bribed and coerced, Patch.com reported when the suit was filed in May of 2024:
“According to sworn statements, students were rewarded with pizza and snacks when they acted as ‘ambassadors’ for the program and sent to the dean's office if they declined to participate. Some were even allegedly offered cash.
“Although the consent form Hudgins signed when she was 16 describes TM as an ‘optional’ activity, she testified that students were told that they would be disciplined if they declined to take part in the program.”
Hudgins says she was once sent to the dean’s office for questioning the program.
“I complained a few times to my teacher about not wanting to participate in the Quiet Time program,” Hudgins said in a statement. “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.”
The school even compelled students to sign nondisclosure agreements and instructed them not to tell their parents – especially if they were religious – according to the lawsuit.
In a release announcing the settlement, the plaintiffs’ law firm details the students’ allegations against both the Chicago school system and the David Lynch Foundation founded by the now-deceased filmmaker:
“The funds will be distributed among 773 individuals who, while students at Chicago public high schools, were either required to participate in Transcendental Meditation as part of their in-school curriculum or were deprived daily of a half-hour of academic instruction and required to maintain silence while their classmates focused their minds on secret mantras.
“The Chicago Board of Education partnered with the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, which was founded by filmmaker David Lynch to fund Transcendental Meditation instruction in schools. Though presented as a nonreligious exercise, Transcendental Meditation is rooted in Hinduism. The Hindu American Foundation describes the practice as ‘wholly and unequivocally Hindu.’”
Hudgins says she was forced to participate in a private one-on-one Hindu “Puja” worship ceremony in a darkened room involving chanting, religious paraphernalia, and secret mantras invoking the names of Hindu gods.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said there was sufficient evidence to support the lawsuit’s claims that CPS may have violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment banning the government from promoting a particular religion and that students may have been coerced to take part in Hindu religions practices, The Cook County Register reports.
This isn’t the first time Chicago Public Schools and the David Lynch Foundation have paid to settle a lawsuit alleging coerced student participation in the Hindu ritual program. Both times, Bogan High School was at the center of the allegations.
In October of 2023, former student Mariyah Green – a Christian – was awarded $150,000, The Christian Post reported at the time:
“A former student at a public high school in Chicago was awarded $150,000 in a settlement last month after she sued over a Transcendental Meditation program that she alleged violated her constitutional rights.
“Mariyah Green, 21, sued the Chicago Board of Education in February over a Quiet Time program that was implemented in some urban public schools with the help of the University of Chicago and the David Lynch Foundation, which were also named in the lawsuit.”
As in the case of this week’s settlement, the Chicago Board of Education and the David Lynch Foundation split the cost of the settlement, each paying Green $75,000.