The parents, who called teaching yoga in schools as an effort to 'promote Eastern religion', are set to appeal the ruling by a San Diego County Superior Court judge which stated that teaching yoga does not violate the First Amendment's separation of church and state.
The student's of Encinitas Union School District attend two, 30-minute yoga classes each week in a program supported by a 533,000-dollar grant from the a nonprofit group that promotes Ashtanga yoga, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
In his ruling, which was made without a jury, Judge John Meyer stated that the yoga practice does not advance or inhibit religion, and the concern school had taken several steps to distance its program from the Hindu religion upon which Ashtanga yoga is based.
However, the attorney for the parents said that teaching yoga in a public school violates constitutional protections, period.