An Ohio parent joined LifeWise Academy to post its curriculum online. Now it's suing him.

by Dean Narcisco, Columbus Dispatch

A Hilliard-based nonprofit provider of Christian instruction to public schools has sued a former Ohio man for copyright infringement, claiming he improperly uploaded and shared proprietary instructional materials with families.

LifeWise Academy filed the lawsuit July 2 against Zachary Parrish, a parent who strongly feels that public schools should be free of influence by any single religion, especially when it is offered for payment.

LifeWise calls itself a "privately funded Christian non-profit that provides public school families with 'released time' religious instruction in traditional, character-based, Biblical teaching during school hours." Released time would include lunch breaks and non-core instruction like art, music or study halls.

Parrish said he volunteered to become a LifeWise instructor in hopes of learning more about the company's teaching.

During his training, he gained access to the company's entire curriculum and was shocked, calling it "indoctrination."

He eventually copied the materials onto his personal computer and shared them with a network of people who also adhere to the so-called Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

According to the lawsuit, LifeWise told Parrish to remove the materials, calling his actions: "willful copyright infringement involving registered copyrighted works obtained by deceit."

Parrish refused and was angered to learn that LifeWise also filed a report with Hilliard police, claiming that he hacked into its computer systems.

The police report, obtained by The Dispatch, concludes "it is unclear whether Parrish committed a crime by hacking into their system or LifeWise unintentionally gave him access to their training courses." No charges were filed.

"My view is that it's a parental rights thing," Parrish told The Dispatch. "I feel that any parent who wants to send their kids there should have access to this information."

Zachary Parrish, right, poses with his daughter, Ramsie, 10, in this undated handout photo. Parrish is the defendant in a lawsuit by LifeWise Academy, which accuses him of copyright infringement after he posed its curriculum online.
In 2021, Parrish's daughter was in second grade in Defiance Public Schools when a teacher offered to enroll her in a LifeWise class. He refused.

"I thought this can't be legal, but I didn't say anything. It was all very new to me. Mind you, we are just out of COVID-19, and she was already struggling to learn how to read. Instead of this class, they wanted to put her in a study hall. But I was told there was no study hall before LifeWise was implemented."

Materials, Parrish learned, include "videos, activity pages, leader guides, cards, and printables," according to the lawsuit.

LifeWise states in the lawsuit that it "hosts the LifeWise curriculum in a password protected portion of itswebsite solely for use by local LifeWise Academy chapter programs across the United States." Those chapters (but not the schools or students) pay LifeWise a fee to access the curriculum.

Parrish operates a Facebook page called Parents Against LifeWise, currently with about 2,800 members.

LifeWise states that Parrish's primary purpose was to harm "LifeWise’s reputation and galvanize parents to opposelocal LifeWise Academy chapters in their communities," which Parrish does not dispute.

"It is pretty shady to say that we can't show this to parents," he said.

The LifeWise website has several positive reviews but also critics, including from Baltimore-based Dr. Cynthia Mobley:

"30,000 children enrolled already in 12 states!!! Please protect our American children!!! I'm a pediatrician and this is extremely disturbing, indoctrinating our children into one singular religion in a pluralistic society, even if it appears voluntary on the surface. While it's technically legal, it's not in line with our American tenet of separation of church and state."

LifeWise wants Parrish to stop maligning it, to remove copyrighted documents and to pay court costs.

It states that it has lost revenue by Parrish sharing "the full texts of the registered copyright works which those readers would otherwise have to purchase in paper format, or acquire in digital format."

In response to questions from The Dispatch, LifeWise provided this statement:

“LifeWise filed a lawsuit against Zachary Parrish for intentional copyright infringement. He improperly obtained our entire copyright protected curriculum, and he posted to his website without our permission. We asked him to remove the curriculum voluntarily, but he has refused to do so.

“Posting the entire curriculum is not 'fair use,' and we are confident that the Judge will agree. We are hoping to settle this dispute swiftly."

dnarciso@dispatch.com