I came from a very small public school in Northern California; an area that has only recently adopted a “no prayer in public schools” policy. I had no personal qualms with this subject only because I made the conscious choice to lead a secular lifestyle, but I had friends on both sides of the issue ready to claw each other to death over whether prayer should be allowed in schools or not. As so happened to be the case at my school and schools all over the country, certain high profile faculty members had a habit of reciting a prayer to Our Lady before any athletic contest. The football team in particular did not have any intention of stopping since the prayer was part of preparing them to play. It was tradition, habit, good luck, etc. But the administration soon found a way to get the coach to give up his pre-game prayer, and many team members felt it was unfair. They argued that the majority of the team was already Catholic if not Protestant, and the only non-religious athlete on the team (yours truly) did not mind praying before a game. The administration, however, did not budge on the issue, even less so when angry parents phoned in to harass them. I recall my government teacher and I talk at length over the issue of prayer in school, and we spoke of different ways to interpret the First Amendment. Personally, I hold the belief that the stance on prayer in schools should be taken so that no one denomination or faith suppresses the expression of another one. Yes, this means that the school administration and faculty should not take a vested interest in one religion over another, but this can be argued to include secularism as a basis of faith. I think that the administration should have allowed there to be prayer for the football team or any other team that followed a few simple guidelines, namely, if anyone wants to pray to a different god or deity it should be allowed, and no administration or faculty members can be a lead or be a part of the prayer. The best policy, in my opinion, is to allow students the freedom to choose their religious affiliation instead of trying to suppress it because therein lies a form of exclusionary discrimination. Religion is tied so closely together with language and culture that it seems unreasonable to deny a student the right to show his/her devotion as long as he/she isn’t disturbing anyone. And, in all honesty, praying never hurt anyone; I, an atheist, can attest to that.
Antonio Renteria
Social Foundations of Coaching
