Football Coach Prayer Controversy
On October 7, 2005, shortly after being informed by Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro that he would not be permitted to join his football team in prayer as he had done in the past and that some parents had complained about the prayers, East Brunswick High School coach Marcus Borden resigned from his position. Borden, also a tenured Spanish teacher, had by then had a distinguished 23-year career with East Brunswick Public Schools. District spokeswoman Trish LaDuca told the East Brunswick newspaper Home News Tribune that " representative of the school district cannot constitutionally initiate prayer, encourage it or lead it." The East Brunswick football team lost its game in a shutout on the day Borden resigned. Following Borden's resignation, nearly 100 players, parents, and coaches arrived at his house on a rainy day pleading for his return. Borden agreed and received pro bono legal representation the next week. He filed a lawsuit against the district on November 23 that year alleging that it was violating his constitutional rights; lawyer Ronald Riccio represented Borden.
Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh of the United States District Court for New Jersey ruled on July 26, 2006 that Borden could bow his head and bend his knee when the team captains (i.e., students) lead the players in prayer. However, this decision was overturned on April 15, 2008 by a unanimous decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in which Judge D. Michael Fisher concluded that "a reasonable observer would conclude that he is continuing to endorse religion when he bows his head during the pre-meal grace and takes a knee with his team in the locker room while they pray."
Read more about this topic: East Brunswick Public Schools
Famous quotes containing the words football coach, football, coach, prayer and/or controversy:
“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
—Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The woman ... turned her melancholy tone into a scolding one. She was not very young, and the wrinkles in her face were filled with drops of water which had fallen from her eyes, which, with the yellowness of her complexion, made a figure not unlike a field in the decline of the year, when the harvest is gathered in and a smart shower of rain has filled the furrows with water. Her voice was so shrill that they all jumped into the coach as fast as they could and drove from the door.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness ... It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)