Mississippi
FFRF brought Madison County Schools in line after a basketball coach was reported to have been bringing students on school-sponsored mission trips.
A district parent reported that from Nov. 18 to 20, 2022, the boys basketball coach was allowed to take the Madison Central High School team on a school-sponsored Christian mission trip. The coach’s intention was reported to make the team’s student athletes “servants of Jesus Christ.” According to the official itinerary for the mission trip, the trip included religious devotional and church services.
FFRF’s complainant stated that the coach never told the parents of student athletes that attending the mission trip was optional as none of the other official team events for the 2022 season were optional. The complainant states that they and their child did not speak out against the mission trip because their child feared retaliation.
“Even if attendance on the mission trip was truly voluntary — which does not appear to be the case — voluntariness is not a safeguard against violating student athletes’ First Amendment rights,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district.
After FFRF following up with the district, Assistant Superintendent Austin Brown reached out to FFRF to assure that action had been taken. “We have confirmed that upon investigation of this matter the school administration addressed this with the basketball coach at Madison Central High School at the time it took place,” Brown wrote. “No other trips of this nature have taken place since, nor will there be approval for any such trips of this nature for any of our athletic teams in the future.”
