BREMERTON, Wash. – The Bremerton School Board accepted a nearly $2 million settlement with Joe Kennedy, who was fired for praying on the field. Kennedy is also being reinstated as a high school football coach.
Joseph Kennedy’s case about his firing made it all the way up to the Supreme Court — with the court ruling 6-3 in favor of the coach getting his job back. In an August 2022 ruling, the justices said Kennedy’s right to pray on the field was protected by the First Amendment.
Kennedy, a Christian, was a former football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington. He started coaching at the school in 2008 and initially prayed alone on the 50-yard line at the end of games. Students started joining him, and over time he began to deliver a short, inspirational talk with religious references. Kennedy did that for years and also led students in locker room prayers. The school district learned what he was doing in 2015 and asked him to stop.
Kennedy stopped leading students in prayer in the locker room and on the field but wanted to continue praying on the field himself, with students free to join if they wished. Concerned about being sued for violating students’ religious freedom rights, the school asked him to stop his practice of kneeling and praying while still “on duty” as a coach after the game. When he continued to kneel and pray on the field, the school put him on paid leave.
The district then fired him from his position.
After Kennedy’s firing, the case made its way through local, state, and the Supreme Court.
Source: q13fox
