A.1 As you enter your team’s dressing room prior to a varsity football game, you see your head coach, kneeling on the floor, leading a prayer in which he invokes Jesus’s name. When questioned the next day, he responded that he was just following a request from his athletes. What are the legal implications of this situation?
Here is the key legal questions in this scenario. Did the coach violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? Is the coach an employee of the high school? Is the football team on public school property? Is the head coach in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment?
In the Engel v. Vital, 370 U.S. 421(1962) case, the public school required that the students ...view middle of the document...
In this program, I will go over; the handbooks do’s and don’ts for new high school coaches. There will be a section that will be dedicated to religion on public school property and coaches who engage religion. Next will be the consequences if one of these rules are violated. First offense will be a verbal warning. Second offense will be a written warning and suspension from coaching for two weeks. Third offense will be termination from coaching position.
B.2 Your trainer noticed a core group of upperclassmen on the football team had shown an unusual increase in size and strength. Suspecting PED use, you conducted a urinalysis test for the varsity football players. As a result of a few positive results, several athletes were removed from the team; because the principal wanted to send a message to all athletes, the young men were also suspended from school for five days. What legal questions are raised by these actions?
There are two laws that I see in this scenario, the Fourth and Fifth Amendment. The United States Supreme Court that drug-testing policy reasonably served the school district’s important interest in detecting and preventing drug use, and the policy did not violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. The implication of the Fifth Amendment as it applies to due process, appeals to disciplinary penalties imposed on athletes by the school administration.(NIAAA)
Did the principal allow the varsity football players to appeal the discipline? Does the drug testing violate the young men's Fourth Amendments? I feel the principal was too harsh on the student-athletes with the suspension from school for five days. There were no appeals for student-athletes who were suspended, which...