Natalie Laymon earned FFRF’s Percy Bysshe Shelley Student Activist Award (established by FFRF Member Michael Meek) of $1,000 for speaking out at a school board meeting over unconstitutional prayers by a coach at her high school.
By Natalie Laymon
Recently, my school was contacted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation addressing a complaint from a student who was uncomfortable about a coach leading prayer before a cross-country meet. The superintendent, new to the school district, provided some communication to the district with the reminder of an existing school policy that staff are not allowed to lead prayer. In addition, he added it as an agenda item to the already scheduled staff workday. He was not implementing a new rule, he was simply upholding what was already there.
I have lived in the same small town my whole life and am very aware of the strong faithful beliefs that many here have. It was no surprise that many did not receive the news very well. Within 24 hours of the communication, people already had T-shirts made and wore them to the football game with the school’s logo and text that read “Put me in coach, I’ll pray.” The excitement about the situation only continued to increase throughout the weekend as news spread, and talk continued both around town and online. A petition was even started that got over 1,000 signatures and raised more than $1,000.
My mom and I had talked about the topic many times and we were both aware that it would be addressed at an already scheduled school board meeting. Initially, I didn’t feel the need to attend, especially considering that it conflicted with drumline practice. However, during school, I found out that another student, the creator of the petition, was going to be speaking at the meeting that evening. Gathering support for her petition with QR codes all over school, I knew, “If she can speak, I can, too.”
