Dori: Coach defying school district is an employee every second of the season

The coach who prays after every football game says he will continue to do so, with the support of an attorney.

News of Bremerton coach Joe Kennedy came and went in September. The football coach’s decision to pray after games came under scrutiny by school officials nervous about crossing a line between church and state, leading to a district decision that Kennedy could pray on his own, but not in a position as coach.

However, Kennedy intends to continue praying.

Related: Bremerton football coach can stay, but prayers gotta go

“We got word that he is planning to defy that school district order and pray with the kids [Friday night],” said KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.

Mike Berry is an attorney with the Liberty Institute, an organization whose stated mission is to “defend and restore religious liberty across America.” He is representing Coach Kennedy and his choice to lead his players in prayer.

“The constitution and cases from our Supreme Court and all support what Coach Kennedy was doing,” Berry said. “To be quite frank, all he was doing was when the final whistle blew, the clock hit zero, the players have sung the fight song, and high fived each other, and were getting ready to get on the bus and go home, Coach Kennedy would quietly go out on the 50 yard line and give a pray of thanksgiving, thanking God for player safety, for hard work, teamwork…

“He started doing that a decade ago by himself. Some of his players noticed him doing that and they asked him what he was doing and he told them … and they asked if they could join him. So this is a coach doing this on his personal, private time and students just happened to start congregating around him. He’s permitted to do that, and they’re permitted to do that.”

Related: Bremerton coach under scrutiny for post-game prayers

Dori, a self-described Christian and a high school varsity basketball coach, said he understands and respects the coach’s religious rights, however, it’s not how he would lead his kids.

“I would never pray with my kids because I do have kids of various faiths, and I have kids who may be agnostic and maybe atheist,” Dori said. “I know what the coach said, that they can choose not to participate if they don’t want to. But what if those kids do feel excluded? To me, a coach shouldn’t be doing any activity that may exclude kids that don’t believe as he believes.”

Berry maintains that Coach Kennedy’s prayers are inclusive activities, and stresses that the players are joining of their own free will.

“But this is a case where the coach as a public school employee is initiating the prayer, and the students are voluntarily choosing to join in. But what I’ve said before, is wouldn’t he go coach at a private Christian school that would welcome coach led prayer?”

Berry argues that “coach led prayer” is a mischaracterization of the situation, and that it is a private, personal prayer.

“But I said, ‘coach initiated prayer,’ and I do think there is a distinction there,” Dori responded.

Berry further argues that the Bremerton School District’s response of preventing the coach from praying or discussing religion with students is a violation of his rights.

“For the school district to come out and ban him from doing that, is in essence a school district trying to control what a public school employee, in this case a coach, does in their private time,” he said.

But what is considered “private time” may be at the heart of this debate. Is it truly private time when the game is over, but the coach is still with his players?

“But I really disagree that this is in his private time as a private citizen,” Dori said. “As a coach myself, I am a coach every second during the season – the basketball season is mid-November through the state tournament in March … when the game is over and the gym is emptying out, I am still a coach, and I’m still a public school employee that is in charge of that venue. I don’t agree that he is a private citizen in that sense of the word.”

The situation also begs the question, that if the community would be as supportive if the issue weren’t about Christian prayers.

“The Christian community clearly has rallied around this cause,” Dori said. “If a Muslim coach walked out, and said a Muslim prayer and students joined in maybe because they wanted to respect the coach’s faith, or maybe because they wanted to curry favor with the coach in the opes of getting playing time, or the fear of not joining in would cost them playing time, would Christians be as supportive of Muslim led, coach prayer?”

“If they support the constitution of this country,” Berry responded. “They have to support the right of a coach, any coach, who in their private time wants to go out there and utter a private prayer.”

On Friday spectators in Bremerton may not be at the field just for a game. They may linger a little longer to see if the coach will step back on to the field when everyone else has left, and utter his own private prayer.