The Freedom From Religion Foundation has taken issue with football coaches in the Monrovia Unified School District unconstitutionally pushing their religion onto student-athletes.
A district parent reported that two Monrovia High School football coaches have regularly led student-athletes in prayers on the field before football games. The parent states that the practice has potentially taken place for at least several years. Additionally, FFRF learned that the coach-led prayers made the complainant’s child “uncomfortable,” but that they do not dissent or sit the prayers out for fear of retaliation from the coaches.
“Public school coaches cannot constitutionally lead their teams in prayer or promote their personal religious beliefs to student-athletes,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence has written to the district.
It is unconstitutional for public school employees to direct students to partake in religious activities or to participate in the religious activities of their students, FFRF emphasizes. Here, both coaches allegedly have a pattern and practice of leading student-athletes in prayer before football games while acting in their official capacities as coaches.
Student-athletes are especially susceptible to coercion. When coaches lead the team in prayer, students, such as our complainant’s child, will no doubt feel that participating in that prayer is essential to pleasing the coaches and being viewed as a team player. Putting student-athletes in that position is not only unfair but also violates their First Amendment rights.
Needlessly inserting religion into the school’s football program marginalizes student-athletes who are nonreligious or members of minority religions, as well as those who simply do not believe in public prayer. Nearly half of Generation Z members (those born after 1996) are nonreligious, so this likely represents a number of students on the Monrovia High School football team.
To protect the First Amendment rights of students, FFRF is urging Monrovia USD to investigate the matter and ensure that the coaches are no longer allowed to lead student-athletes in prayer or push their personal religious beliefs onto students.
“Public school districts cannot require students to pray to play,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “The Constitution gives students the right to be free from religious indoctrination while at school. The district must respect that by stopping these coaches from forcing their athletes to pray.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 5,400 members and two chapters in California. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
