Abstract This study focused on the perspectives of school personnel affiliated with the Encinitas Union School District in California following a lawsuit arguing that their yoga-based program included religion and therefore was unsuitable for implementation in public schools and was unconstitution- al. Participants (N = 32) were interviewed using a semi- structured interview, and data were analyzed according to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five super-ordi- nate themes (including sub-themes) were identified in an iterative process, including: participants’ perspectives on the roots of yoga and the type of yoga taught in their district; the process of introducing a yoga-in-the-schools program in light of this contention (including challenges and obstacles, and how these were met); perspectives on the lawsuit and how the process unfolded; effects of the lawsuit on school climate and beyond; and perspectives on yoga as, and as not, religious. The study attempts to shed light on the impact of an ongoing lawsuit on a school district at the time of implementation of a program for students’ well being. Introduction In the past several years, there has been a growing move- ment of bringing yoga and mindfulness into K-12 schools, recognizing the impact of these practices on children and adolescents’ health and well being (e.g., for a review of yoga programs in the United States; see Butzer et al. 1 ). Researchers have been studying these programs, including: their effects on children and adolescents' physical and men- tal health; their ability to manage stress; regulate their emo- tions; concentrate on academics; and overall academic achievement 2-6 . As this movement continues to grow, some parents, and other individuals in the communities where these programs are offered, are expressing concerns regard- ing the potential religious elements that these practices introduce to their children that may conflict with their own religious beliefs and those they wish to instill in their chil- dren. This debate gained further public awareness when one family of two children at a school in Encinitas, California (CA) sued their school district, arguing that the yoga pro- gram offered was introducing religion into the school and therefore was unconstitutional. While the legal system has ruled in favor of the district (twice), these arguments raise questions regarding the public perception of these school- based programs, and what is (and is not) actually taught to children within this educational context. In this article, we attempt to answer these questions, along with a focus on the challenges faced by school personnel while attempting to implement a school-based yoga program at the time of a lawsuit and ongoing public debate—including the presence of strong voices in both opposition and support of the pro- gram—among the local community. Due to the historical nature and the implications for other districts working to implement school-based yoga, a phenomenological analysis (PA) was conducted to document the experience of the school personnel working within Encinitas Union School District (EUSD). This study briefly reviews the timeline of the lawsuit, then details the PA methods and outcomes, and addresses implications for future research. Program Development and Implementation In 2011, the EUSD, included nine K-6 Elementary schools served approximately 5,400 children in Encinitas, CA (sit- uated 20 miles North of San Diego, in the Southern region of CA). Initially, yoga was introduced to the school district in one of the nine schools. One instructor taught yoga to upper classes and children in special education, with no par- ticular curriculum. This initial yoga program, and what evolved to be the larger, district-wide yoga program, was funded by the Sonima Foundation (formerly Jo i s Foundation, and now referred to as Pure Edge, Inc.). The Sonima Foundation was a non-profit, public corporation that worked to promote health and wellness programs in K- 12 schools. Given positive feedback, in the summer of International Journal of Yoga Therapy — No. 27 (2017) 25 www.IAYT.org Interpretive phenomenological analysis of a lawsuit contending that school-based yoga is religion: A study of school personnel Catherine Cook-Cottone, Erga Lemish, Wendy Guyker University at Buffalo, State University of New York Correspondence: catherine.cook.cottone@gmail.com Research Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/ijyt/article-pdf/27/1/25/1736619/1531-2054-27_1_25.pdf by guest on 15 February 2021