Fike and Kennedy remember that day when they were working together on a construction project and talking. Kennedy’s thick shell of anger melted slowly under the patient, tough love of Fike and other counselors at the ranch.
He he felt betrayed, especially by his dad. When he was 13, his family sent him to Flying H in Naches, a Christian residential program for boys struggling with their families. He stole, lied and hung with the wrong crowd. Later, he attended Our Lady Star of the Sea school and was expelled. “I had a problem with authority, discipline problems, just a really angry kid.” “It was like being an outsider,” he said.Īt Tracyton Elementary, “I fought a lot. He never felt like he belonged in the family, which included a sister, also adopted, and younger siblings born to his parents. Kennedy, 46, was an adopted child who had an unhappy home life. “This is about my rights as an American to go and do this.” “My rights and my faith, they don’t outweigh each other. The former Marine felt he couldn’t back down. He and the district differ on his constitutional rights as a school district employee. Kennedy says those who’ve made it an argument about Christianity are missing the point. Facebook and Twitter have blown up with passion and vitriol over #CoachKennedy. He’s appeared on NBC’s Today, Good Morning America and The O’Reilly Factor. Kennedy’s face has been plastered all over the media. The latest: Coach Kennedy case at Supreme Court, will draw national floodlight to local dispute over school prayer
28, 2015, the assistant football coach was put on paid leave, setting the scene for a protracted legal battle with the district, although he hasn’t filed suit. Kennedy’s hard scrabble youth and his rocky faith journey that started at the ranch laid the foundation for his recent confrontation with the Bremerton School District over whether he has the right to pray on the field after football games. In the volatile cocktail of dysfunctional youth at the ranch, most other boys towered over him, and yet, said Fike, “I never saw Joe back away from a fight.” He had no fear of anyone or anything,” Fike said. “Something that is indelible in my mind about young Joe, was he was fearless. “He was pretty angry, like a lot of kids,” said Terry Fike, a counselor there in the 1980s, when Kennedy’s pattern of defiance and disruption landed him at the ranch, near Yakima. Editor's note: This article was originally published in November 2015.īREMERTON - When Joe Kennedy arrived at the Flying H Youth Ranch for troubled boys, he was mad at the world.
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