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Alabama House votes to end ban on yoga in public schools


People participate in yoga classes in Times Square to celebrate the Summer Solstice on the first day of Summer in New York City on June 21, 2019. The Alabama House voted to end its ban on yoga in public schools Thursday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

March 12 (UPI) -- The Alabama House of Representatives voted Thursday to end its prohibition on teaching yoga in public schools, a step that could end a nearly 30-year ban.

Rep. Jeremy Gray, who has been trying to lift the ban for the past three years, said he was introduced to yoga while playing college football at North Carolina State and said it can benefit young people.

The state banned yoga from K-12 public schools in 1993 because some conservative groups were concerned about its connection to eastern religions.

The new bill would allow local school boards to offer yoga as an elective and set rules on how it is presented. It will allow students to learn and practice poses, exercises and stretching techniques, but forbids chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas and namaste greetings.

"I think that a lot of people are just miseducated," Gray told AL.com. "A lot of my colleagues just got a lot of emails about it being a part of Hinduism. If you can do it at the local YMCA, you can do it at churches, why is it a problem when it comes to K through 12 public schools? Some people, you can never change their minds. If you have to vote your district, I understand that."

Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program, a Christian advocacy group, said offering yoga would set a double standard.

"It's the Hindu religion," Godfrey told NBC News last year. "It's an issue of separation of church and state. You'll hear people invoke that when it comes to Christianity because they don't want prayer in school. Yet they want to teach yoga?"

In the group's legislative update earlier this month, it claimed Gray's bill would allow "the Hindu religious practice of yoga" to be taught.

"ALCAP is opposed to this bill and urges legislators to vote NO on HB246," the update said.

The bill still has to pass the Alabama Senate and then has to be signed by Gov. Kay Ivey