Will Smith’s School Insists It’s Not Scientologist

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FIRST PUBLISHED: June 30, 2008 12:19 PM EDT
LAST UPDATED: June 30, 2008 12:24 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

Will Smith’s soon-to-open private school is not a Scientology facility, as some reports have suggested, the academy’s director said.

Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, have founded the New Village Academy, scheduled to open in September.

The school will use instructional methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard called study technology. And a few teachers belong to the church.

But the couple say they are not Scientologists, and the academy’s director insists the facility has no religious affiliation.

“We are a secular school, and just like all nonreligious independent schools, faculty and staff do not promote their own religions at school or pass on the beliefs of their particular faith to children,” New Village Academy director Jacqueline Olivier told the Los Angeles Times.

Oliver said some of the school’s staffers are Scientologists, Muslim, Christian or Jewish.

In addition to reading and math, the school offers classes on yoga, robotics and etiquette.

Copyright 2009 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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