Supreme Court Readies For High School Football ‘Kneeling’ Case

It’s already been established that students have the right to engage in a degree of religious exercise while on school grounds.

But do teachers and coaches have the same right?

The Supreme Court of the United States will make that determination beginning today in a case that involves a football coach’s asserted right to kneel and pray on the 50-yard line at the conclusion of a public school football game in Bremerton, Washington.

Beginning in 2008, Joseph Kennedy – a former assistant football coach at Bremerton High School – would kneel at midfield following games, gather players around him, and say a prayer.. By 2015, Kennedy was also often joined at the 50-yard line by players from the opposing team.

That prompted the school’s athletic director, and later the school district’s superintendent, to order the coaching staff to stop praying with students.

So Kennedy stopped his locker room prayers, and for a least one game left the home field, returning later when the crowds had gone, to pray by himself on the 50-yard line.

But Kennedy’s a Marine veteran, and he said that didn’t feel right.

“I fought and defended the Constitution, and the thought of leaving the field of battle where the guys just played and having to go and hide my faith because it was uncomfortable to somebody — that’s just not America,” he told NPR.

So Kennedy returned to his praying practice right after the game, mainly at away games, with little fanfare. And he retained lawyers from the First Liberty Institute. In a letter to school officials, they said that the coach had a constitutional right to pray on the 50-yard line at the end of the game, and that students should be free to voluntarily join in.

By the time of the homecoming game, events were unfolding and there was considerable public and media interest in thr matter. In the lead up to homecoming, Kennedy made repeated media appearances. In a subsequent deposition, he justified his media appearances as “spreading the word about what was going on in Bremerton.”

Two weeks later, the superintendent placed Kennedy on paid administrative leave, citing his failure to abide by the district’s policy against encouraging or discouraging student religious expression. Kennedy did not apply for a new contract the following year. And later he sued the district.

But the school district and it’s supporters disagree with this narrative.

“It was a zoo,” said John Polm, Bremerton High’s principal, describing the homecoming game during his deposition. Attendance doubled, five TV stations showed up, and a group of Satanists unsuccessfully attempted to take the field.

When the homecoming game ended, a largely pro-prayer crowd mobbed the field, overcoming the extra security presence and knocking over some band members and cheerleaders.

Two weeks later, the superintendent placed Kennedy on paid administrative leave, citing his failure to abide by the district’s policy against encouraging or discouraging student religious expression. Kennedy did not apply for a new contract the following year. And later he sued the district.

Nathan Gillam, Bremerton High’s head coach at the time, said in his deposition that he was harassed before and at the homecoming game, and that chaos ensued after. He ultimately resigned after 11 years on the job..

“I was done coaching at that point because I feared for my life,” Gillam said. “This is not worth it; I have two children.”

“He (Kennedy) was not being persecuted for his faith,” asserts Paul Peterson, a parent who’s son played for Coach Kennedy on the junior varsity team in 2010. “If it had been a quiet moment in prayer, nobody would have ever said a word about it.”

In 1962, the Supreme Court outlawed officially sponsored prayer in public school, emphasizing the First Amendment’s ban on any state establishment of religion. But more recently, the court has moved away from concerns about establishing or endorsing religion, emphasizing instead the First Amendment’s guarantee to the free exercise of religion.

The case from Bremerton has already caught the justices’ attention. In 2019 the justices declined to get involved in the case at an earlier stage. But four justices were critical of lower court rulings for the school district, writing that an appeals court’s “understanding of the free speech rights of public school teachers is troubling.”

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