The Bremerton School Board accepted a $1.75 million settlement with Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach that was fired for praying on the field. Kennedy will also be reinstated as a coach for the upcoming season.
"We are thrilled that Bremerton and Coach Kennedy are back together and we hope they go undefeated," Kennedy's legal team from First Liberty Institute said.
The school board voted unanimously in favor of the settlement on Thursday.
Kennedy started coaching at the school in 2008. He began to regularly pray at the 50-yard line of the football field after games. Some students began to join him over time. The school district later found out and asked Kennedy to stop in 2015. Kennedy continued praying at midfield with anyone that chose to join him, to which the school district responded by placing him on paid leave, and eventually fired him.
"The Bremerton School District's priorities have always been protecting the rights and safety of students while ensuring that all students receive an exemplary education," the board said in a statement on Friday. "That's why, when we learned that a district employee was leading students in prayer, we followed the law and acted to protect the religious freedom of all students and their families."
"The school district offered repeatedly to accommodate Mr. Kennedy's desire to pray, as long as he was not delivering prayers to students or coercing students to join him. Mr. Kennedy's lawyers refused to accept any resolution that didn't include Mr. Kennedy praying in a way that involved students. For nearly seven years the lower courts ruled repeatedly that Mr. Kennedy's actions were a violation of the Establishment Clause."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Kennedy in June, citing Kennedy's right to pray as protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"The Bremerton School District will fully comply with Supreme Court's order to treat Mr. Kennedy's personal religious conduct the same way the district treats all other personal conduct by coaches at football games," the statement continued. "We look forward to moving past the distraction of this nearly 8-year legal battle so that our school community can focus on what matters most: providing our children the best education possible."
