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Bremerton School District No. 100 is a public school district in Kitsap County, Washington, USA and serves the city of Bremerton.
As of April 28, 2021, the district has an enrollment of 4,554 students.[ citation needed ]
In 2015, Joseph Kennedy served as assistant football coach at Bremerton High School, where his children attended as students. His wife was the district's director of human resources. In 2007, he swore an oath that he would kneel at the 50-yard line to pray after each game, and he maintained this practice up until October 2015. [1] In his prayers, Kennedy sought to express gratitude for "what the players had accomplished and for the opportunity to be part of their lives through the game of football." Kennedy offered his prayers after the players and coaches had shaken hands, by taking a knee at the 50-yard line and praying "quiet[ly]" for "approximately 30 seconds." For over seven years, no one complained to the district about these practices. [2]
The district's superintendent began official correspondence with Kennedy on September 17, 2015, admonishing Kennedy to abstain from any outwardly visible behaviors that a reasonable person could interpret as religious expression. Further correspondence on October 23 made clear that the only option it would offer Kennedy was to allow him to pray after a game in a "private location" behind closed doors and "not observable to students or the public." After the game on October 26, Kennedy "knelt alone to offer a brief prayer as the players engaged in postgame traditions." [2]
Shortly thereafter, the district placed Kennedy on paid administrative leave and prohibited him from "participat[ing], in any capacity, in . . . football program activities." While Mr. Kennedy received "uniformly positive evaluations" every other year of his coaching career, after the 2015 season ended in November, the district gave him a poor performance evaluation. The evaluation advised against rehiring Kennedy on the grounds that he "failed to follow district policy" regarding religious expression and "failed to supervise student-athletes after games." [2]
Kennedy sued the district in federal court, alleging that the district's actions violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses. He also moved for a preliminary injunction requiring the district to reinstate him. The court denied these initial motions on the basis that the district's actions were necessary to avoid violating the Constitution's Establishment Clause. Consequently, the case would have significant implications for freedom of expression in the United States. [2]
Kennedy appealed the judgment, and the case eventually proceeded to the Supreme Court of the United States, which considered arguments in April 2022 and released its ruling in June 2022. The Court ruled in Kennedy's favor, reversing the lower courts' decisions and holding that "The Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression. The district acted on a mistaken view that it has a duty to suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech," and that "A rule that the only acceptable government role models for students are those who eschew any visible religious expression would undermine a long constitutional tradition of tolerating diverse expressive activities." [2] Following the Court's judgment, Kennedy has indicated his intent to return to coaching football at Bremerton High School. [1]
Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 43,505 at the 2020 census and an estimated 44,122 in 2021, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap. Bremerton is connected to downtown Seattle by two ferries: a 60-minute ferry that carries both vehicles and walk-on passengers, and a 28-minute Fast Ferry that carries passengers and a limited number of bicycles.
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), was a case argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. The court ruled in an 8–0 decision that Pennsylvania's Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act from 1968 was unconstitutional and in an 8–1 decision that Rhode Island's 1969 Salary Supplement Act was unconstitutional, violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The act allowed the Superintendent of Public Schools to reimburse private schools for the salaries of teachers who taught in these private elementary schools from public textbooks and with public instructional materials. Lemon was a major precedent in federal and local courts until it was effectively overturned by Kennedy v. Bremerton School District in 2022.
Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court case deciding on the issue of silent school prayer.
Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Edward Schempp, on behalf of his son Ellery Schempp, and declared that school-sponsored Bible reading and the recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools in the United States was unconstitutional.
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools, due to violation of the First Amendment. The ruling has been the subject of intense debate.
Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), was a case heard before the United States Supreme Court. It ruled that a policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at high school football games violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Oral arguments were heard March 29, 2000. The court announced its decision on June 19, holding the policy unconstitutional in a 6–3 decision.
Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court decision regarding school prayer. It was the first major school prayer case decided by the Rehnquist Court. It held that schools may not sponsor clerics to conduct even non-denominational prayer. The Court followed a broad interpretation of the Establishment Clause that had been standard for decades at the nation's highest court, a reaffirmation of the principles of such landmark cases as Engel v. Vitale and Abington v. Schempp.
C. H. v. Oliva, 226 F.3d 198, was a religious freedom case in which mother Carol Hood sued Grace Oliva, her son Zachary's first grade teacher, and related administrators in the Medford Township Public Schools for not allowing the child to read a section of the Bible in class. His kindergarten class had made Thanksgiving paintings the year prior, and his was taken down and subsequently reposted in a less noticeable place for its religious content. The poster was called "I'm Thankful for Jesus." Carol Hood met with Principal Gail Pratt, who defended the school's decisions. She said that reading the story "was the equivalent of 'praying'." Noting that she had received complaints in the past, Ms. Pratt stated that the story "might upset Muslim, Hindu or Jewish students." She added that there was "no place in the public school for the reading of the Bible" and advised: " '[M]aybe you should consider taking your child out of public school, since you don't appear to be public school material.' " Ms. Pratt noted that "her position was fully supported by various legal authorities."
The endorsement test proposed by United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in the 1984 case of Lynch v. Donnelly asks whether a particular government action amounts to an endorsement of religion, thus violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. According to the test, a government action is invalid if it creates a perception in the mind of a reasonable observer that the government is either endorsing or disapproving of religion.
Milan Dale Smith Jr. is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Smith's brother, Gordon H. Smith, was a Republican U.S. Senator from 1997 to 2009. Milan Smith is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.
Daugherty v. Vanguard, 116 F.Supp.2d 897 is one of a number of United States federal cases decided in the 2000s pertaining to the scope of allowable religious expression and/or activities in public schools. In the court's summary judgment issued in September 2000, U.S. District Court Judge David McKeague ruled that Vanguard Charter Academy and its corporate parent, National Heritage Academies, did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution through its Moral Focus Curriculum.
Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001), was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that held that, when a government operates a "limited public forum," it may not discriminate against speech that takes place within that forum on the basis of the viewpoint which it expresses—in this case, against religious speech engaged in by an evangelical Christian club for children.
Bremerton High School is four-year public secondary school in the port city of Bremerton, Washington, west across Puget Sound from Seattle, in the Bremerton School District. Between 1993 and 2007, Bremerton High School contained grades 10–12 for enrolled students, but starting in the 2008 school year, the school facilitates grades 9–12, where grade 9 was previously contained at Bremerton Junior High School. Several changes in the district's grade configuration have meant freshmen have been in and out of the building.
Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203 (1997), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. In this case, the Court overruled its decision in Aguilar v. Felton (1985), now finding that it was not a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment for a state-sponsored education initiative to allow public school teachers to instruct at religious schools, so long as the material was secular and neutral in nature and no "excessive entanglement" between government and religion was apparent. This case is noteworthy in a broader sense as a sign of evolving judicial standards surrounding the First Amendment, and the changes that have occurred in modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence.
Bibb County School District vs. Wickman (2005) was a case heard before the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama. It ruled that a policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games held at private venues and initiated by personnel of said venue does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Oral arguments were heard April 6, 2005. The court announced its decision on June 27, holding the policy constitutional in a 6–3 decision. School prayer is a controversial topic in American jurisprudence.
First Liberty Institute is a nonprofit Christian conservative legal organization based in Plano, Texas.
Central Kitsap School District 401 is a public school district in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It serves unincorporated portions of the county, including the community of Silverdale, and portions of the City of Bremerton. As of June 2014, the district has an enrollment of 11,091 students. Approximately one-quarter of students are from military families, and one half are from families economically dependent on the US Navy. It consists of CK High and Middle school, Klahowya, and other schools like Ridgetop or Fairview
The Kitsap Admiral Basketball Club is a semi-professional international feeder program that is based in Bremerton, Washington. It was established in 2011 by former semi-pro basketball player Ashley D. Robinson.
School prayer in the United States if organized by the school is largely banned from public elementary, middle and high schools by a series of Supreme Court decisions since 1962. Students may pray privately, and join religious clubs in after-school hours. Public schools are those operated by government agencies, such as local school districts. They are banned from conducting religious observances such as prayer. Private and parochial schools are not covered by these rulings, nor are colleges and universities. Elementary and secondary schools are covered because students are required to attend, and are considered more at risk from official pressure than are older students and adults. The Constitutional basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...
Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. ___ (2022), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held, 6–3, that the government, while following the Establishment Clause, may not suppress an individual from engaging in personal religious observance, as doing so would violate the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
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