Why Does This Page Exist?
I heard about HB 445. This would change Ohio law to force school districts to create policies to govern how the "released time for religious instruction" will function in the district. Without the policy, LifeWise and other religious institutions will have to put more work into the process to determine what would work for each student. The bill would remove the voice of local people and school boards.
A few days after posting an article about HB 445, I was told to look into LifeWise. I was curious how widespread they were. So I wrote some scripts, screen scraped their website, and placed the data on a Google map for visual reference. I posted this map in a few places to see what people thought and to let people know their progress.
People were excited about the map and about a way to know which school districts LifeWise was targeting next. I sent some public record requests to see if I could add enrollment data to the map.
A couple of weeks later I received a cease and desist letter (Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 ) from LifeWise's attorney. Before they sent the letter, they tried to file felony charges against me. This police report(Page 1 Page 2), which I received after the cease and desist letter, reveals there was no legal issue with the website I had created.
When they were told by the police no crime was committed and they could not press charges, they decided to draft the letter. This letter threatened me with charges, even though they had been told by police there was no crime, in exchange for taking the website down. This goes against the Ohio Supreme Court's Rules of Professional Conduct 1.2 (e) for attorneys.
LifeWise claimed copyright infringement. But I was not using their material to compete with them or pass it off as my own. This website is fair use. Joel Penton spends a good majority of his time speaking about Supreme Court cases that uphold LifeWise's ability to conduct business but does not like anyone else using the same amendment.
I hope this website can be useful for anyone who wants to know more about LifeWise Academy.