Judge rules California school district is not teaching religion by offering yoga classes

SAN DIEGO – A judge is allowing a San Diego-area school district to teach yoga, rejecting the claims of disgruntled parents who called it an effort to promote Eastern religion.

San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said Monday that yoga is a religious practice but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Unified School District at its nine campuses.

Meyer said the school district stripped classes of all cultural references including the Sanskrit language. He noted that the lotus position was renamed the "crisscross applesauce" pose.

An attorney for the parents, Dean Broyles, says he will likely appeal.