Teachers and coaches deserve to have their civil rights protected

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Teachers and coaches play an essential role in our country. Yet, their intangible influence is in danger of being lost if we fail to protect their civil rights.  

Coaches like Joe Kennedy should be celebrated for their commitment to building football players into men.  Instead, Bremerton School District fired him for praying by himself after his games.

Kennedy’s early years were filled with fighting and foster care. His adoptive parents once told him that the decision to adopt him was the worst decision they had ever made.  Still, it was those very experiences—combined with a career in the U.S. Marine Corps—that made him a great coach.  

SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW CASE INVOLVING HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH WHO WAS FIRED FOR ON-FIELD PRAYERS

Calling plays and determining playing time was left to the head coach.  Kennedy had the job of picking a kid up when he was down on himself for a bad play, making sure his players had cleats when he couldn’t afford them, getting his players food, and even making sure his homeless players had a dry place to sleep at night.  

He never envisioned himself as a coach, but when the district’s athletic director pressed him to consider coaching football, Kennedy agreed to take the weekend to think about it.  

Joe Kennedy coached high school football in Bremerton, Washington. (First Liberty)

That weekend, he stumbled across a football movie—"Facing the Giants"—on TV.  The movie moved him deeply.  He knew it was the answer from God he needed.  Like the coach in that movie, he promised that, after the game was over, he would drop to a knee on the field of battle in a quick, quiet moment of prayer.  

Eventually, and