Massive Win For High School Football Coach Who Was Fired Over Praying Before Game As It’s Been Revealed That He Will Be Reinstated

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There have been a number of encouraging and rather heartening wins on the matter of the right to religious freedom and expression.

The wins are being achieved in the most important of forums… the courts. The latest case of victory comes to us out of Washington. A high school football coach who was fired by the district over postgame prayers must be reinstated to his old job by March 2023, court documents filed Tuesday say.

In fact, it is now being reported by Fox News that:

Joe Kennedy, a former football coach at Bremerton High School, was put on leave in 2015 for reciting prayers at midfield following games. 

Kennedy had begun reciting a post-game prayer by himself, but eventually, students started joining him. According to court documents, this evolved into motivational speeches that included religious themes. After an opposing coach brought it to the principal’s attention, the school district told Kennedy to stop. He did, temporarily, then notified the school that he would resume the practice.

The situation garnered media attention, and when Kennedy announced that he would go back to praying on the field, it raised security concerns. When he did pray after the game, a number of people stormed the field in support.

The school district offered to let Kennedy pray in other locations before and after games, or for him to pray on the 50-yard line after everyone else had left the premises, but he refused, insisting that he would continue his regular practice. After continuing the prayers at two more games, the school district placed Kennedy on leave.

The New York Post reported that:

The parties still disagree, the court documents state, though a clause was included in the record that the district cannot “interfere with or prohibit Kennedy from offering a prayer consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion.”

Additionally, the district is not allowed to “retaliate against or take any future adverse employment action against Kennedy for conduct that complies with the terms of the court’s order.”

The New York Post went on to report that:

Kennedy’s counsel told the Washington Examiner that the football coach is looking forward to returning to the job.

“Since the Supreme Court released its decision in June, it was inevitable that Coach Kennedy would be back on the field,” Jeremy Dys said. “We’re glad that the school district has agreed that by March 15, 2023, he’ll be back to coaching, just like he wanted when he filed the lawsuit.”

So, this win can be put into the books as the latest win for those that value freedom of religion along with the need and right to express it.

We reported earlier this past September that a federal judge in the great state of Texas took the side of a Christian employer who had argued that the federal requirement, courtesy of the Affordable Care Act, covering HIV medication was a violation of their religious freedom.

This came in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling that former Coach Joseph Kennedy had his own religious freedom violated when he was told that he couldn’t pray on the field after a football game.

Follow The Raging Patriot for more on this story as it develops!