Our schools are in a deplorable state, and our young people are surrounded by dangers on all sides—from premarital sex, school shootings and drug and alcohol abuse to low literacy standards and a lack of understanding about the difference between right and wrong. In light of this, you’d think the schools would be grateful for a teacher who serves as a positive, moral role model for young people. But when religion is involved, even heroes like Marcus Borden find themselves under fire.

According to the legal director for the ACLU of New Jersey, Borden has fostered a “destructive environment” for students. What did Borden, a high school football coach in East Brunswick, N.J., and a recipient of the national Caring Coach of the Year award, do to create such a “destructive” environment?

Coach Marcus Borden

He merely bowed his head silently, and at other times, he knelt down on one knee, again silently.

Coach Marcus Borden wasn’t attempting to pray with his football players, nor was he leading them in prayer. All he did was show respect for their pre-game tradition by bowing his head.

Traditions, after all, are important to Americans. And pre-game prayers are a longstanding football tradition. In fact, pre-game, student-led prayer has been a regular part of the game of football since before Coach Borden started leading the team in 1983. Indeed, over the course of 25 years, more than 2,000 East Brunswick football players have taken a knee and opted to voluntarily pray before taking the field on game days.

The prayers typically follow along the lines of, “Dear Lord, please guide us today in our quest in our game. Please let us represent our families and our communities well. Lastly, please guide our players and opponents so that they can come out of this game unscathed, no one is hurt.”

The practice quickly became a target for official censure after school officials passed a policy in October 2005 prohibiting representatives of the school district from participating in student-initiated prayer. Yet even that wasn’t enough for school officials. So they ordered Borden to stand still, rather than bend a knee and bow his head while his players recited pre-game prayers.

Although Borden won at the district court level, the school appealed the ruling, aided by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. And just last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that a football coach may not silently bow his head or “take a knee” with his team as a gesture of respect for student-led prayers prior to a game.

Coach Borden has not wavered in his determination to stand strong. He knows what hangs in the balance—our young people. And he knows that he is not alone in this.

We are standing with Coach Borden in this battle, and I hope we can count on you to stand with us. I’ve given Coach Borden my word that The Rutherford Institute will continue to fight for his right to silently bow his head during pre-game prayers.