The Dawson County School Board's legal counsel received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the county's high school football team's "character coach."
A letter dated September 19 indicates a concerned citizen reported that Dawson County High School employed a character coach to regularly pray with the football team.
It also states a video was posted online on September 7 showing the character coach, local pastor Russell Davis, praying with the students before a game in what appeared to be the locker room at the high school.
The FFRF said in the letter that "public schools cannot appoint or employ a chaplain, seek out a spiritual leader for students, or agree to have a volunteer teach other people's children that character centers on religious belief, because public schools may not advance or promote religion."
The FFRF requested Dawson County Schools investigate the complaint and take immediate action "to ensure that its football program is no longer allowing religious leaders to have access to its students or promoting religion in violation of students’ constitutional rights." They also asked for a written copy of the steps the District is taking to remedy the situation.
“Both school and religious officials are free to offer prayer in their private lives however often they would like,” said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker in a statement. “But when they are acting in the official capacity of the state, they are violating the constitutional rights of impressionable young students by inciting prayer and promoting religion.”
The school system declined an interview after multiple attempts for comment, stating Superintendent Damon Gibbs was unavailable Tuesday morning. Legal counsel for the system did not immediately return a request for comment.
The letter is available here.
Saturday
April 20th, 2024
10:38AM
