When a school program tells students not to tell their religious parents about an activity, there is a problem. That is what reportedly happened in Chicago Public Schools when it allegedly forced students to practice Hindu-based Transcendental Meditation (TM) twice a day.
This week the Chicago Board of Education and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace settled a class action lawsuit, agreeing to pay out $2.6 million to former Chicago Public Schools high school students who say they were forced to participate in TM for 15-20 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon.
Court papers show the board of education first signed a $170,000 contract with the foundation to implement its “Quiet Time” program from March through June 2018.
“The key component of Quiet Time is an evidence-based stress reduction and cognitive development technique known as Transcendental Meditation. … If youth choose not to meditate, they are free to select another quiet activity such as sustained silent reading, resting, or quiet sitting,” the contract reads.
But former student Kaya Hudgins, now 22, testified in a deposition that she was told Quiet Time participation was mandatory. And, although the contract calls for permission slips to be signed by parents, Hudgins said students were told not to tell their parents. Hudgins, who grew up in a Muslim home, was 16 when the Chicago school allegedly started to indoctrinate her into TM. Hudgins said she asked if she could do some of her five daily prayers instead during Quiet Time and was denied, and she was sent to the dean’s office for complaining about the program.
Hudgins said she was first trained to do TM in a room alone with a woman and an altar that had a photo of a Hindu holy man. In front of the photo was a bowl of rice and some fruit that looked like an offering to the photo. There was incense, the woman had a bell, and she recited something in a different language.
Hudgins said she was given a mantra and was told not to tell anyone what it was. When she researched the mantra’s words, she found it was the name of a Hindu god. Students were reportedly trained to repeat their mantra over and over in their minds during Quiet Time.
Aryeh Siegel, an expert used by the plaintiff in the case, wrote that the mantra students were taught seemed like just different sounds, but they have a meaning in Sanskrit: “To the effulgent (name of deity), I bow down.” Siegel is the author of the book Transcendental Deception.
The Federalist reached out to Chicago Public Schools for comment and to see if it still offers “Quiet Time.” The school did not respond.
The religious aspect of TM is hidden at first. The Hindu American Foundation describes TM as “a practice that is wholly and unequivocally Hindu, but never presented as such, at least not in the mainstream.”
Attorney John Mauck of Mauck & Baker represented Hudgins and the class of similarly affected students.
“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 in an email statement. “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.”
“I was just a teenager when I was pressured into a program I didn’t understand and wasn’t allowed to question,” Hudgins said in a statement. “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.”
Film producer David Lynch, best known for the eerie 1990 television series Twin Peaks, died in January. He was an avid TM advocate, and his foundation, which was founded to teach TM in schools, has since expanded beyond schools. The foundation has bases in New York and Fairfield, Iowa, home of Maharishi International University and community-wide TM meditation lessons.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
