Anniston High School’s football coach will no longer organize and lead his team in prayers after receiving a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
A local news report noted that Coach Eddie Bullock asked for a “prayer leader,” a student who led the other players in prayer. Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote Superintendent Darren Douthitt of Anniston City Schools on Oct. 31, writing that “Anniston City Schools must take action to ensure that coaches do not lead, organize, invite, encourage, or participate in prayers with their teams.”
“We have informed our coaching staff that they cannot initiate a prayer by the embers of our athletic teams. It is also our plan to remind all faculty and staff of all our schools that they cannot initiate nor participate in student prayer,” wrote an attorney for the school district in a Nov. 17 response.