Arizona football coach suspended for praying with team
The head football coach at an Arizona prep school is serving a two-week suspension for praying with his team after a recent game.
Tommy Brittain asked his son Isaiah, who is on the team, to lead his Tempe Preparatory Academy teammates in prayer after a 30-22 win over Show Low on Sept. 5, Brittain told the Arizona Republic in an email.
School policy doesn't allow any representatives of the school to initiate or participate in prayer with students.
“He is a man who likes to pray and I don’t object to that. Just, he can’t do that with our students,” school headmaster David Baum told KPHO-TV. “He directed students to lead a prayer and he joined the students in that prayer and did so in view of everyone.”
"I think I preserved the religious freedom of our students, who have to have the liberty to be able to practice or not practice their religion on our campus without interference by adults," Baum said.
Parents and students had mixed reactions to the suspension. Several came to Friday's homecoming game with posters supporting the coach, and some have spoken out on Facebook and Twitter.
Parents put up poster of support for Tempe Prep Coach Tommy Brittain, who was suspended for praying with team pic.twitter.com/NTWSFuJLle
— Nicole Garcia Fox10 (@Fox10_NicoleG) September 20, 2014
Others have supported the school's decision, according to the Associated Press, because the school is not a religious institution – Tempe Prep is a state-funded charter school. Brittain was one of its founding teachers in 1996, and he started the football program in 1998. The suspension doesn't impact his teaching status. Even without him, the team thumped Surprise Paradise Honors, 51-7, on Friday.
Praying with players has been an issue throughout the state this season. Gary Weiss, a volunteer coach at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson, which is a public school, said his position was terminated because he refused to tell players to stop praying after games. District administrators said the issue was that Weiss was organizing the prayer sessions, but he denied leading or encouraging the group.
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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or follow her on Twitter!
