A coach in the Wimberley Independent School District in Texas will no longer pray with students or endorse students’ prayers. Staff Attorney Sam Grover wrote Wimberley’s superintendent Sept. 25, detailing a report that Wimberley High School’s athletic director and head football coach led the team in prayer at the end of every football game, and that coaches also engaged in smaller prayer circles with players before games.
FFRF’s complainant said the letter led to the coach calling for a moment of silence right after his postgame talk to the team, after which he allegedly put his hands on the shoulders of two players, one of whom immediately led the students in prayer. Grover wrote a second letter Nov. 7.
The school’s attorney responded Nov. 17 that the coach no longer leads or participates in prayers, asks students to pray or designates a student to pray or participate in prayers. The coach was instructed to step away from student-led prayer and to tell students and parents that he neither encouraged nor discouraged prayer, said the attorney.