Consider a story about coaches and teams praying before games.
Marcus Borden, a
high school football coach in
New Jersey, is suing his school for not being allowed to pray with
his team. Borden was told he could not lead his team in
prayer, nor could he bow his head and kneel while his players
prayed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the third circuit is
hearing the case.
If you do a story about this issue at your own school, remember:
Get all sides.
This story involves many points of view, so provide your
reader with as many as you can. Interview the coach, players, parents and
school officials about whether a coach has a right to pray with his team. Interview lawyers about this issue. Ask questions that involve
why
not just the
who and
what. Why does the team pray? What do they pray
for?
Be visual with your writing. When
interviewing the coach and players, do the interviews in their comfort
zone. Whether it's on the field or in the locker room, capture the environment and paint a picture with words. Watch and listen as a team prays -- if you find one that does -- to include those details in your story.
For background, read
a column by Poynter's Al Tompkins, where he quotes
The Washington Post:
Grant Teaff, the executive director of the American Football Coaches
Association, estimates that about half of high school football coaches
nationally pray with their teams or lead their teams in prayer. "It's
very much like warriors going into battle, a platoon going into
battle," he said.
He said the association has no guidelines for its members on prayer.
"That's individual," he said. "It'd be like telling somebody, do you
smile when you give an order, or do you frown."
"Not allowing it doesn't mean you're anti-religious or anti-faith;
it means you're trying to be respectful of everyone," said Peter Roby,
director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University.
"Sometimes being respectful to everybody means that you have to refrain
from things you would prefer to do as a team because you don't want to
exclude or offend anyone."
