The Freedom From Religion Foundation has convinced Aplington-Parkersburg Community School District in Parkersburg, Iowa, to protect student athletes’ rights of conscience.
FFRF, a national state/church watchdog, learned that the head football coach of Aplington-Parkersburg High School led prayer with the team after every game. During a varsity football game in early September, the Grundy Center CSD football team joined the school’s varsity team on the field after the game to pray.
“Government actors, like [the coach], may not lead prayer over a captive audience,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district.
Public school students have a constitutional right to be free from religious indoctrination in their public schools, including attending school-sponsored events and participating in their school’s athletics program. And student athletes are especially susceptible to coercion. When their school’s athletic program compels them to participate in prayer, student athletes undoubtedly feel that participation is essential to pleasing their team’s coach. Prayer at student athletic events places athletes in a dilemma: They must either worship — against their conscience — or openly dissent, risking their standing on the team. That ultimatum is exactly what the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment guards against, FFRF pointed out.
After FFRF’s letter, the district investigated the claims.
“Effective immediately, Aplington-Parkersburg football coaches will not lead or ask student athletes to participate in team prayer,” Superintendent Travis Fleshner recently replied. “If team prayer occurs, it will be entirely student-led, with no participation or promotion by coaches, and coaches will not encourage or invite athletes to attend any religious events.”
FFRF is determined to ensure that students will remain free from religious indoctrination in public schools.
“Student athletes need to be aware that they never need to pray to play,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “School districts have a constitutional obligation to remain secular in all of their programming, including after the conclusion of a football game.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit with 40,000 members across the country, including hundreds of members in Iowa. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on nontheism.
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