Is Yoga better than Gym Class?

Ruling: Yoga Can Continue In Encinitas Schools By 10News

Photo by Promise Yee

Encinitas students demonstrate yoga poses, April 2014.

A state appeals court has upheld a decision that allowed yoga to be taught at Encinitas Unified School District schools.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Friday that the district's yoga program was not unconstitutional, as some had argued.

A lawsuit was filed in hopes of stopping the yoga instruction, as the plaintiffs in the suit felt that yoga was religious in nature.

The district's program was funded by a $500,000 grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation, which promotes Ashtanga yoga, a fast-paced form of yoga of progressively more demanding poses with synchronized breathing. The district is believed to be the first in the country to have full-time yoga teachers at every one of its schools.