Here is proof that praying pays off; in this example, taxpayers had to cover the bigotry and stupidity of the left once again, as anti-free-speech, anti-Christian, anti-Constutition activists on a school board fired a high school football coach for praying on the sidelines before a game.
And the elected officials have no remorse about what they did and how they were found to be wrong.
In fact, according to a press release from the school, they are pouting and refusing to talk to the media.
“KENNEDY VS. BREMERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Media contact:
Karen Bevers
Director of Communication & Community Engagement
Bremerton School District
Karen.Bevers@BremertonSchools.org
360-473-1014
The District is not doing media interviews at this time. However, please view our media guidelines here.
(updated 2/24/23)”
This should be an excellent example of why civil servants need to be personally responsible for the consequences of their social justice activism when acting as public servants because their actions abused the citizen twice.
Once, they fired an excellent teacher and coach twice when the community had to pay for the school board’s Christian intolerance.
It all started in 2008 when Kennedy began coaching at Bremerton High School, KCPQ-TV reported, adding:
“After each game, the coach, a Christian, would pray by himself on the 50-yard line. Students began to join him in the prayer and eventually he started giving religiously-themed talks. Students also engaged in locker room prayer.”
Imagine being upset that students were discussing spiritual messages in school. Again, another example of social justice warriors is elected officials harming the community and endangering people.
Western Journal went on with more details:
“Years of this later, the school district asked Kennedy to stop. So he did but kept up his 50-yard line end-of-game prayers.
The school administration, knowing students wouldn’t cover their eyes but would see a man of God approaching his Creator, feared a lawsuit over restricting the students’ religious freedom.
Not seeing the irony, the school told Kennedy he was not free to kneel and pray on the football field when he was “on duty.” Kennedy’s response was to ignore the order and to keep praying.”
The school district put him on paid leave.
The College Fix reported details about Kennedy’s fight at that point:
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court siding with coach Joe Kennedy in August (via a 6-3 vote), the Bremerton School District has agreed to pay him $1.75 million … and give him his job back.
In a March 17 announcement, the District’s board announced it had agreed to the settlement, all the while claiming in a not-so-roundabout way that it had acted legally appropriately.
“[W]hen we learned that a district employee was leading students in prayer, we followed the law and acted to protect the religious freedom of all students and their families,” the board said.
“The school district offered repeatedly to accommodate Mr. Kennedy’s desire to pray, as long as he was not delivering prayers to students or coercing students to join him. Mr. Kennedy’s lawyers refused to accept any resolution that didn’t include Mr. Kennedy praying in a way that involved students. For nearly seven years the lower courts ruled repeatedly that Mr. Kennedy’s actions were a violation of the Establishment Clause.”
The board also noted the monetary portion of the settlement is for Kennedy’s attorney fees that “will be paid in interest-free installments over three fiscal years.”
The board’s announcement notwithstanding, the SCOTUS had said in its ruling that students “were not required to participate in Kennedy’s prayer sessions, and the prayers were not publicly broadcast.”
As noted by The College Fix back in August of 2016, Coach Kennedy “saw no reason” to comply with Bremerton High School’s demands that he stop praying. He never had a complaint about his post-game 30-second prayer at the 50-yard line in seven years, and students were joining him of their own free will.
Furthermore, another coach “ha[d] engaged in a Buddhist chant” at the end of games and was never warned or reprimanded.
Before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, district lawyers had said Bremerton took no action during those seven years because it believed Kennedy was giving an “inspiration speech.”
The people who paid for their stupidity are everyone other than themselves.
“The Bremerton, Washington, school board just got a reason to respect the First Amendment,” The Washinton Journal reported, adding:
“Two million reasons. That’s the dollar amount of a settlement with Joe Kennedy, the high school coach who lost his job seven years ago for praying on the football field. Kennedy sued and won — up to the level of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Not only is there a nearly $2 million dollar settlement approved March 6 by the school board, but the court, in October 2022, ordered the school district to give him his job back by this month.”
Whoever thought it was a good idea to use their authority position to do something stupid needs to be replaced.
