06/04/2026
Not a surprise. This group is not vetted, held accountable to what they are teaching, who is teaching, who picks up kids to take them to these program sessions when out of school. If parents want their kids to participate in religious classes, they should have classes after school hours.
🚨 Three Ohio men who worked for or volunteered with LifeWise Academy, the fast-growing Christian instruction program that now operates in more than half of Ohio's school districts, have been charged or pleaded guilty to s*x crimes against children in three separate counties since mid-April.
Kenneth Holycross III, a former LifeWise teacher in Tipp City, was charged with two counts of ra**ng minors under 13 and is being held in the Miami County Jail. He is also listed as a part-time mental health technician at Dayton Children's Hospital, which has not responded to questions about his employment. Christopher Riggs, a Muskingum County pastor and former LifeWise teacher, pleaded guilty to voyeurism and gross s*xual imposition involving a 14-year-old. William VanSickle, a Perry County LifeWise volunteer, pleaded guilty to one count of r**e and two counts of s*xual battery against a minor for crimes spanning from 2017 to 2022. All three passed the organization's required background screening at the time they were brought on 🔍.
LifeWise says none of the alleged crimes occurred during its programming or involved LifeWise students. Critics, including the Secular Education Association, say three cases in six weeks raises serious questions about whether background checks alone are sufficient for a program that operates inside the public school ecosystem and now enrolls nearly 100,000 students across 34 states. Governor DeWine signed a law last year requiring all Ohio public school districts to create a policy allowing religious release time 🏛️.
