Then, call the coach yourself, and tell him you don't want to escalate, but are prepared to do so if he doesn't respect the religious differences of his students.

Sorry you're forced to face this.

... and I do plan a follow-up conversation with him. But I also want to speak with the principal because she has a responsibility here.

You'll have a lot more leverage if there is one. If there isn't, go to the next Board of Ed meeting and relate your story.

otherwise people can get nasty.

have him NOT bow his head, have him OBVIOUSLY not pray. Let the coach put forth his "repercussions" and then sue him and the school.

what the practical repercussions in terms of conflict with his chess coach and potentially some of the the other kids. Even if this is something HE wants to do, this shouldn't be done casually. I would find out what other options there may be, and I would consider them carefully.

keeps her son well informed about all aspects of this issue and their repercussions as she is aware of them. In no way does she give the impression she has him under any kind of disillusion or "cuz I said so" type of life.

I would kinda appreciate it if the OP were to respond to my question about whether he's checked into what the school policy on this sort of thing actually is.

Whether it be the coach or the school screwing up, it's needs to stop, even if no one ever complains, it needs to stop at a public school, particularly if it is Xian specific as opposed to a moment of silent prayer. So in two ways it breaks the law. First it shouldn't be forced, and second it shouldn't favor one religion over another.

unless you're suggesting litigation under the 1984 federal Equal Access Act.

The coach's behavior is thoroughly inappropriate and wrong.

Completely absent from your story is any hint of self determination on the part of your son. He seems to be a cameo player in what is essentially your drama. We know how you feel about it. We know how your wife feels about it. We know that your son squirmed, but in anticipation of how you would react. We also know what your wife did and said, and what you plan to do and say.

It is, of course, entirely your prerogative as parents to take this up with the school and with the coach. Also, since missing from your account is any indication of your son's age, maybe having him address situations in his own life is something that he's not ready to take on.

If the team made it to the tournament, then this has been going on for a while and your son hasn't been telling you. He's obviously decided he'd rather play chess than make waves and, from your account, knew there would be a problem when you found out. I feel badly for him now that he's become a pawn in a game between others.

I don't really expect him to stand up to the 45-year-old chess coach entirely on his own.

My son has told me that this had not been typical of the coach's behavior before this. Also: I have attended many of the chess practice sessions and never witnessed this before. My feeling is that, away from the view of school officials, the coach decided to let it all hang out.

My son told me that the whole thing made him uncomfortable. I think he would have told me otherwise if it had not. He is the one who told me about the "there will be consequences" remark. I was not in the room for that team meeting.

Passive resistance doesn't require anyone to "stand up" to anyone else. Having walked out of a student assembly in high school which was sponsored by a religious group, and having calmly told the vice principal why I was doing so in what was essentially a dare for him to do something about it, I found the experience to be empowering and liberating.

I have no idea what your son thinks about the situation, and for all I know he may feel trapped between two strong personalities here. However, the course I would take is to refuse to pray, take the consequences, and then tell the coach, again perfectly calmly, that what I have learned about his faith is that it is coercive and vindictive and thank him for convincing me I never want any part of it. Setting up a "fight" and using the technique of shaming instead of fighting can also be done in parallel, as my next move would be to sue the school out of existence.

I'm also curious to know whether this is a charter school. And is this a school-sanctioned club, or a volunteer activity on the part of the coach?

IMHO, 11 is a perfectly appropriate age for your son to be the primary driver of the response here and a perfectly appropriate age for him to develop the connection between his own conscience and actions without you taking control of the situation out of his hands. The age difference is not an issue here.

By the same token, I would not profess to be competent to tell you what you should do.

Again, totally IMHO, but I think your son's best move is to make the coach punish him. Then, the coach is going to have to address the redressable consequences of HIS actions.

The child- repeat, child- who wants to fit in or play a certain game being subjected to bigoted crap on the part of adults in charge might be subjected to racism as well. Your notion that adults at school get to do things to children who are on their own is scary. Parents must not intervene with this, you say, it is up to children to fight adult bigots?
What if the coach was a racist? Would it still be up to a child to confront that, and if the child did not, well, then the coach should not be bothered by parents?
Your theory is that if the bad adults pick the right child to exploit, the bad adults win, because children must deal on their own with adults in power, without help form parents?

... that I have exposed my son to Christianity. We have attended church with my father and mother (separate churches; they are divorced).

Once, when my son went to stay with my father for a week during the summer, I allowed my dad to enroll him in a Christian day school that went on for a few hours per day, five days in a row. When I did that, I talked for a long time with my son both before and after the experience. I have tried to make it clear that I am not antagonistic toward Christians or Christianity and, ultimately, it will be up to him to decide how he feels about it.

But I do have a problem when an authority figure outside the family decides to appoint himself the spiritual adviser of my son.

What you do with your family is your own business. Still, I count the word "I" in your writing on the topic, which should be about your son and what he wants, a lot.

Your son is obviously a good chess player, and he's been handed a game to play. If he's a better chess player than you are, then he may have a better view of the strategic situation.

people post these experiences and you are just ready to call BS on them even when there is no cause to do so.

who is an authority figure.

you can be so dense about things when you really dig in, as you're doing now.

I love threads that are about me.

An eleven year old is certainly well able to know his religious beliefs and not participate in things contrary to them. But the OP gives no indication of what his thoughts or feelings on the matter are, and the discomfort is cast in terms of how he thought his parents would react. I'm just going on what is written there, and it says much.

I also have some tangentially related experience in stating directly to a school coach, without getting exercised about it, that his behavior would result in legal action against him and the school. (That situation involved leaving an injured child - mine - unattended in a locker room.)

But, hey, let's talk about me. I'm a much more interesting topic, I assure you. Lets detail all of my personality flaws and how much better I would be if I were more like you.

why did you have to get involved?

see?

He had passed out, and was left unattended.

and make him seem like a fool and selfish for not agreeing with you.

and you'll post two dozen messages to do so.

that's how you roll.

And I don't even disagree with the poster.

Can you explain what it is the poster and I disagree about?

We both agree that the coach is doing something wrong and illegal. As the situation is one which involves his son, I am curious to know what his son thinks about it, primarily.

Are there any other personal characterizations in which you would like to engage?


"It is, of course, entirely your prerogative as parents to take this up with the school and with the coach."

I agree that "prerogative" may be a word which many people do not understand, but I specifically said that however he deals with it is entirely and properly up to him.

because an 11 year old knows when they should and should not take on their coach and a father has no say in that.

Sounds like you've dealt with the situation very well until now. Personally, I wouldn't make such a big deal about it. Explain to your son that bowing one's head makes no difference, nobody can be forced to pray and the world is full of freaks and freaky things. He's a smart kid and will figure it all out. Just a part of growing up.
Instead of getting all bent out of shape, look at the positive side. Inner city school, chess club (that's the context) and giving those kids some religion is probably not the worst thing that could be happening to them. And I say that as an atheist. Remember, it's all about context.

thing but he should not be coerced to even pretend such either.

If the boy is offended then he shouldn't stand for it and should have your support or if he doesn't himself really care then the previous advice is strong. He can bow his head and consider it a moment of silent reflection and a period of acceptance of the beliefs of others even if they lack the mental and spiritual maturity to display the same tolerance that he a pre-teen has already learned.

Obviously he's a great coach, but the prayers need to stop. Pretty cut-and-dried.

The awkward part is that this coach really IS great at what he does. I want him to continue teaching chess, but quit the proselytizing.

If he's good at what he does, it's hard to imagine the school summarily firing him for just one aspect of his behavior that doesn't specifically bear on his job performance. I would imagine that the school could give him a talking to. If he's enough of a zealot that he's willing to ignore warnings from his employer and continue evangelizing, then I don't care how good a chess teacher he is, he has no business working in a secular school.

I would be tempted (I wouldn't actually go this far - at least not at first) to have my kid mention this and ask that the coach honor those origins. To do this, the prayers should be to Odin, Tyr, Thor, etc.


On a more serious note, I hope that you and the Mrs can get this coach to back off. No kid should be forced to pray just so they can participate in an activity they enjoy (Obviously I mean a non-religious activity).

If you like, I can pray to Odin to have his wolves haunt this coach's dreams.



In case your interested, here is the viking chess set (I gave my dad one a few years ago)


http://www.norseamerica.com/catalog/item/4962003/4990410.htm

Her son is very into Viking lore now.

to the Norse game. I have enjoyed the Tablut game they have and I think there is a free version and a dollar version.


I hope your daughter's son has fun learning about the vikings and our lore.

between 320 and 550 C.E. and I'm pretty sure they were not Christian at all and had never even hear do Jesus Christ.

I'm sure everyone left their own little twist as the game moved from country to country.

I had a couple holy-roller freak teachers when I was a teen, and believe me - even a student can put her foot up their ass and end the crap. Look I respect that you're trying to deal with it through the principal and up the chain, but you've got a 50/50 chance. This is where you need to be calling the ACLU, the media, etc. as well.

But unfortunately, your son is best equipped to end it. I was one of those students who didn't just squirm, but made the statement over and over. "There will be consequences?" "Really? And what are they? I don't pray. I don't do your god. And I'm not going to pretend."

Yes, I really did the equivalent as a kid. I had a teacher go full red-faced ballistic at me in front of the class, and I stood there (heart pounding) with a poker face and crossed arms. After he was done, I looked him in the eye and said "This is school, not church. I'm not a christian, and I 'm not going to be." He looked like he was going to start another freakstorm, but then it just went out of him as he saw 30 heads watching the incident, and glints in 30 eyes looking him up and down like a hurt gazelle among a herd of lions, and he did the calculation about the next 6 months of media coverage, parental complaints, school board meetings, and awkward silences in the teachers' lounge.

Yes, it's rough being an agnostic kid, but as they say, it gets better. That is, it gets better if you learn to speak up knowing your parents will back you if some SOB tries to give you detention for standing up to forced religion. I had to deal with two religious bully teachers this way, and I dealt with 3-4 others who weren't as bad and avoided the full-out confrontation, but I was the one who had to do it.

Good luck. I hope you can take care of this, but you'll probably have to bring in some big guns and your son will probably have to take a personal stand - parents alone can rarely have the kind of effect that a student speaking up can have.

When the other side is not ready for conflict it makes it easier to throw them for a loop and the consequences can make them light headed.

I used to play the devil's advocate all the time. I especially did so when the RTLers came into the classroom. I always asked them difficult questions regarding the safety of a 12-year-old having a baby due to rape and such, and would continue to press them after their canned response. I may have not changed the speaker's mind, but I'm sure it had an effect on the other students. I took great pride in my position, and this young man could as well.

and telling non-believers to just suck it up and ignore it. Or my fave - that prayers/religious stuff at school or government sponsored events is no big deal....

Kick and a rec for more eyes on your story.

That's not what I've understood. Various groups like the FFRF and the First Amendment Center both indicate otherwise but I'm willing to be educated differently.

I see the problem as twofold - the coach praying, and the coach telling the kids that there will be consequences if they don't pray. I don't care to understand the nuances of distinction - both suck imho.

as far as I can tell.

I have already said it was inappropriate and wrong.

If you were asking about the particular circumstances described in the OP, then I don't know why you would ask if I thought it was okay. I already said it was not okay upthread.

I was under the impression that the question you posed in this subthread was a broader general question of whether a coach, under any circumstances, could or could not pray with students.

So, no, the circumstances described in the OP are clearly well over the line, wrong, and indefensible. If your question is whether there are any circumstances under which a teacher/coach may pray with students, there certainly are.

Your question was "So school coaches are allowed to pray with students before games?" That's a broad, general question. Let's say a team is at an away game in a distant city. Arguably, the coach is in his supervisory capacity at all times. However, if prior to the time that any of the students are required to be attending a pre-match coaching session or otherwise engaged in the activity, the coach can certainly pray and do so with any students who desire to do so.

I mean his he forcing him to pray? Will he be kicked out if he doesn't? I highly doubt it...

Ok, there should be action taken against this Coach immediately IMO.

the bastion of Christianity

The FFRF, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, is looking for cases such as this, especially if the prayer was "forced." It sounds to me like a violation, but of what I am not sure.

http://ffrf.org/

I wish that this crap of praying in school would be dropped, it just seems like a mechanism to bully people from other faiths or non believers. I am sorry that this happens and if were up to me it wouldn't.

Ask the coach how he would feel if someone who was coaching his children in a public school was a Catholic who required everyone to pray the rosary or a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist who required everyone to repeat the nenbutsu or a Muslim who recited verses from the Quran before every match.

...those same people who demand prayer in school would pivot on a dime to cry that those evil others are trying to indoctrinate their children.

I was taught by my devout Catholic parents that a person's religious/spiritual beliefs are private, and only con men wear their religious beliefs on their sleeve.

I have always said the same thing - it's personal. I also see many Christians who seem to not only be trying to convince others to believe, but themselves as well, including my sister. The frequency with which she and some other Christians mention their beliefs sounds more like they are not so sure themselves, so saying it over and over, out loud convinces them it's true.

Call the local ACLU and see if the coach is violating the state law.

I tend not to get upset about it.
Since I am agnostic, I can stand to be respectful.
My suggestion would be to have your son RESPECTFULLY tell the coach that praying to Jesus and bowing his head is against his personal religious beliefs. FWIW I would expect the same of a Jewish, Hindu or Muslim parent.

It's one thing to inwardly roll your eyes and let it be if it's a mostly inoffensive situation, such as a moment's silence before a practice. When it rises to the level of bullying, where students are told there will be consequences unless they act a certain way during a coach-led prayer, you have to respond to the bullying with force, the only language a bully understands.

Nobody has ever stopped a bully by asking them to stop, ignoring their behavior, or running to teacher.

I don't disagree with that.

The coach is an adult. Fighting an adult head on simply means he will harden himself against you and, perhaps, take it out on the kid next time.

I would agree with the original sentiment about being respectful but firm that the son will not be doing this again.

Please blind our opponents' eyes to the power of our strategically placed knights, forgive us for castling as well as those who castle against us, and let us not be deceived by, 'Fool's Mate.'

TlalocW

Father Satan, I call to you from the deepest parts of my heart, I praise your name with every breath of my body, I worship you with every fiber of my being.

You have shown me what true strength is. You have shown me what true love is. Out of the darkness you came to show, me the true light.

My master, my father and my friend what a great gift that is.

Hail to the King!

http://inpraiseofsatan.webs.com/prayerstosatan.htm

Just don't get upset when that nice Kindergarden teacher has her class pray to Satan! It makes their heads explode!
Here, I would let the boy tell the teacher that he will sit out the prayers, but let the coach lead the others in prayer. Then, if the coach wants to force the issue, the boy should decide if he will let it go and continue to play, or raise a stink to have this bullshit stopped at the risk of losing the coach.

him if it does any good for a non-believer to pretend to go along and pray? A true believer should say no, one has to feel it in their heart or something like that...so would it be better to have a prayer with everyone sincere in that prayer or to have a non-believer cancel their prayers because of no faith? I'd think a true believer would then excuse the non-believer from their prayers to keep them pure. Of course I suspect this has become more of a power struggle at this point rather than belief/non-belief.

There's just some shit we have to do and put up with, its a part of life. I look at it as training for growing up. IMO not a battle worth fighting over if other things make the school worthwhile.

And frankly as a kid, it didn't have that much impact, it was just this boring repetitive thing we all had to do, no different from memerizing math multiplications.

if they can't be compelled to participate in this http://www.dese.mo.gov/schoollaw/freqaskques/pledge.htm it makes no sense that they should be pressured to participate in prayer as part of a school sponsored activity.

The coach doesn't have a leg to stand on, and apparently the foresight chess otherwise cultivates is lacking or ignored by him in this instance, because he'll easily get his butt kicked over it.

It's really the chess equivalent stepping into the "Fool's Mate" in terms of who will win this "game". He's just betting that no one will make the right "move".

Put his feet to the fire and make the system straighten him out!

This is one of the things wrong with the USA. This is how wars begin, holier-than-thou'ers thinking they are right and can do no wrong with the Lord guiding them!

Just in case you didn't get it the first time, DOCUMENT time, day date, who was in attendance, who witnessed the events when and where they happened.

Each and every time, document these instances.


School boards wilt under proper documentation of their employee's wrongdoing.

our teacher made us pray for his soul. Unfortunately many of us were not Roman Catholic so we were taught that you do not pray for the dead. Plus in my case my parents would have prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for his death. In case you do not know who I am talking about it is the commie hunter who held the hearings in DC in the early 50s. My family hated that idiot.

OK. Push that button. Lets see what the consequences are...maybe he'll get lucky, and the consequences will be free ice cream.

I do some volunteer teaching at my son's elementary school. Much of it has to do with the connection between music and regional social history. I'm not Christian, but I wanted to introduce spiritual songs related the Civil Rights movement. What was explained to me is that religious practices, etc., can be demonstrated, but students cannot be asked or required to participate in them. This state leans conservative, but I think it still shows where the chess coach crossed the line by asking the kids to pray and then introducing penalties for non-participation. Those ground, I believe, may a very clear, very direct complaint that is less complicated than separation of Church and State.

It has been some years since I played chess, but I don't recall prayers being part of the game.
So he is stepping over the line with this itself.
But for him to suggest there would be "consequences" for not participating in a prayer is way out of line.

If the coach is a good Christian, as he must see himself, he can pray for his students in his own time, but he has no authority to make prayer part of teaching and coaching a chess team.

The school has no business empowering those religious warriors.

I don't bring it up half because a) I don't really care (It's my personal quiet reflection time and people leave me alone), but b) I work for a newspaper and I need somebody else to make it an issue before I nail them on it. Unlike the paper in Westchester County, journalists shouldn't be the story. Too bad nobody actually goes to the meeting of the all-Republican boards around here. I do my job too well.

Ask your son how he feels. 11 year olds can and do have opinions on such things. That's about the age I quit Boy Scouts because I figured out I was pragmatic agnostic all on my own. Oh, and the next issue of Rolling Stone spent a lot of time on the uber-gay bashing. That made the decision easy for me.

If he doesn't like it (and not because you don't like it), I'd say find the policy, contact the school board, and if necessary, call the ACLU. A tape recorder or video camera would also help (you're a proud mom/dad combo, you should have your iPhone or camcorder ready anyway ).

If the school receives public monies, you're on solid legal ground for complaining about it. But someone such a visceral, emotional - as opposed to rational - commitment as this zealot appears to have cannot be relied upon to take criticism in stride and not retaliate against your son in some way. Do you know if other members of the chess team are similarly discomfited? I spent a few years at a Catholic school as a kid and the overwhelming majority of us resented the religious overtones of the place. Since it was a Catholic school, there wasn't much we could do about it, but almost all of us would have loved to be freed from the imposition. If there were other chess team members who also resented the whole prayer thing, perhaps you could contact their parents and get them to sign on to a joint protest letter. There's strength in numbers: if there were other parents complaining, the instructor would have a much harder time retaliating against multiple team members.

Trust me, it'll light a fire up someone's ass pretty quick.

Keep us posted, I'd like to see what the resolution is. Its inconceivable to me that some people think their right to practice their religion includes deliberately, knowingly, and willfully indoctrinating other people's children.

Freaks.

You should let your son determine his own beliefs. He's at the age where he's going to do that anyway. Rebelling against your parents' beliefs is a rite of passage.

............God is too busy giving AIDS to babies in Africa to worry about a high school chess game.

First of all, for purposes of full disclosure, I'm not a religious person. I'm not an Atheist, but I have a healthy disrespect for pretty much all forms of ORGANIZED religion. Whenever I'm at an event where a prayer is being conducted (I actually had this happen yesterday--I was attending my nephew's baptism at a Catholic church, and I find the Catholic sect to be particularly ridiculous with all their dogged adherence to meaningless ritual), I simply refuse to take part. I don't make a spectacle of myself; I simply don't participate. I don't fold my hands or bow my head or "go through the motions." I just remain silent out of respect for the "believers" around me, and I look the person conducting the prayer right in the eye, as I would for anything else he/she said. In my experience, this is the best way to handle things. Just my opinion based on my own life experiences. No need to start a Holy War. No need to call attention to the fact that you're not conforming or demand that the others do as you do. Just follow your own path.

I understand your frustration. I went through a similar "moral dilemma" last year when I found out my 5-year-old son was being asked to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (I have a major problem with any kind of loyalty oath, especially one being forced on a 5-year-old child--it smacks of indoctrination). At the end of the day, I decided that my raising a stink about it would only cause more problems than it would solve, especially since children that age have no idea what the words mean anyway. When he gets old enough to start making his own decisions about such issues, I'll encourage him to do the exact same thing: follow his convictions while respecting others' beliefs at the same time.

In this modern world the coach might have had a restraining order filed against her.

One of my fears when my wife and I were married was that my mom would make a scene at our large Catholic wedding. When I was a kid our family was banned from some churches. Teachers and school staff were always solicitous of her religious views which included sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance and avoiding public prayers in any venue but a church community.

We ended up as Quakers because my mom could openly discuss her conversations with God at meetings and everyone would listen respectfully, nod politely no matter how over-the-top she was, and then move on. In religions with a hierarchical structure negative commentary during a Pastor's sermon is not well accepted.

I'm still a little scarred by my mom's disruptive behavior in schools and churches when I was a kid, and it's not a family tradition my siblings and I carried on. But all our kids know that religious faith is something that comes from within and they are free to accept or reject religious beliefs as their own free will guides them. We've raised a fine bunch of heretics, agnostics, and thoughtful atheists. Our family discussions about religion do not turn into the kinds of warfare I experienced as a child where the so-called adults in the family went flying-crockery-knife-wielding insane during religious holidays. I still can't be happy at Christmas... I dread the holiday even though the religious wars are long over as older generations passed on and we began to avoid conservative branches of the family who considered themselves defenders of their One True faiths.

What i did learn from all this was that by the age of ten I could stand up to a hell of a lot of abuse from religious fanatics of all stripes and I was always confident my mom would back me up against any religious authoritarianism because she strongly believes one must accept religion by one's own free will or it means nothing. My mom was like having my very own Holy Hand Grenade in reserve and this made me confident enough that I never had to use her against people like your son's chess coach.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. -- Matthew 6:5

what kind of consequences will there be? That your son won't play? If he's as good as he is, then why would he jeopardize the whole team by forcing your son out? Not only will that impact the team, he will then put himself out on display for his coersive behavior.

Forcing a child to do something that goes against what their parents allow is abuse. Period. The coach is not your son's parent: you are. This has absolutely nothing to do with religion and everything to do with abuse. Religion has nothing to do with playing chess.

the school is amazingly good, the chess program is incredible, the coach is amazing at what he does.

On the other hand, the coach ends some (not all, some - your words) with a Jesus themed prayer.

To top it off, you are the only white parents.

If you go to the principal, you could end up causing rifts between not only your son and the coach, but also between your son and his classmates, between you and the other parents, between you and the coach. And although you say this is for your son, I'm still not totally convinced.

In this life we need to choose our battles. If this is one you choose, then go for it. But do be aware you may be turning what appears to be an extremely positive experience for your son into something negative and ugly. My suggestion would be to tell your son to use that prayer-time to think about whatever he wants to think about.

I'm not religious but I prefer not to label myself. Labels can be very restrictive, as we can end up trying to live our lives through the filter of those labels.

I am an athiest.

The question is this: does it REALLY matter? You have to answer this for yourself. My answer is not yours.

Is it worth potentially blowing away your son's chess club activities by, at the very least angering this teacher? And further, potentially causing you son problems with the other kids at school?

If the answer is yes, then go nuclear. Don't mess about, call an attorney and follow his or her directions.

If the answer is no, then talk to your son and blow it off. If it makes you feel better, remember that your son is going to have to deal with this nonsense his entire life. From coaches wanting to pray over him to Presidential inaugurantions filled to overflowing with prayers and shout-outs to god. It sucks, it's infuriating, and it's how it is. Not saying don't make waves, but even here on DU a huge number of people are passionate believers in god.

Myself, I'd probably talk to my kid and, without any pressure one way or the other, and find out what he wanted. Whatever decision he makes, praise him for his maturity and carry on.

Good luck!

Is it really worth the possibility of ruining a wonderful life experience for her son in order to prove a point?

They prayed over EVERYTHING. Every morning over the PA in homeroom, before every game, before every choir concert ...

I was in the a capella choir, and our choir trip involved traveling up to East Texas and singing at probably every Baptist church along the way. I was a Methodist at the time, so not even an atheist or agnostic (or Jewish), but I never could figure out why only Baptist churches or churches at all, for that matter. I think we did sing at Sam Houston College, but all that singing religious songs at churches .... gah, I'm still disgusted almost 50 years later.

The boundaries keep getting pushed precisely because no one stands up to this type of bully. The coach may erroneously view himself as irreplaceable because his team wins, but what is this type of coaching teaching the kids?

I just started school and never seen a flushing commode before. WTF!!
magic! Overwhelming! We said the Lord's Prayer in the morning. I, as
a six-year old was thinking WTF!!! These classmates can't be
believing this shit?
A couple year's later Dwight added "under God" to our allegiance!
WTF!!
I knew this before i was ten years old. I am now an ordained
minister. And I still wonder WTF!!!

I believe in the separation of Church and state, and I'm a Catholic. I don't want to put my beliefs on anyone else.

This coach does not seem like a christian at all but a bully. I would never force anyone to pray with me who do not want to. This coach should be fired from his job.

Nothing like lawyers to get someone's attention

... I hope I don't have to take it that far.

I am always amazed by the ignorance and arrogance of people who try to force their religious beliefs on others.
It sounds as though this chess coach is not going to stop unless he is made to stop by the administration or courts.

becomes a war tomorrow, and war lost by next week; nobody knows that, and makes the most of that, like the minions of theocracy.

I can understand why you might not want to fight. I was not an atheist, but a Jehovah's Witness, back when the local Catholics were PISSED that this bunch of upstarts dare lure Latinos. How dare they, Latinos were and are the chattel that pays the bills, especially the Cadillac the priest drives!

However, I saw how every time some parent was shamed into shutting up, they got headway. It got so bad that my school district was 512th in new jersey, last in the STATE, and a large part of that was because the churches did their best to make sure that all their kids went to Catholic school. Let us not forget, these people want public education GONE, as it is the only place that will allow students to learn FACTS that clash with their FEARS.

I found an article that might help you see things in a different light. I'm not begging , but I really hope you take the time to read and reflect on the content before making a decision.

That would very trite and selfish. He should pray for world peace.