The ACLU is not likely take any action against Mountain View High School or its highly successful girls basketball coach, Dave Houle, for his decision to give blessings to two girls before basketball games this year.
"The chances of us doing anything about this is nil," said ACLU spokesman and first amendment attorney Andrew McCullough. "This is not the ACLU versus the Church (of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) . . . I know this is inappropriate from anybody's viewpoint."Houle, however, disagrees.
"I know what I did was right," Houle said. " . . . I know how innocent it was."
He said two girls asked him for blessings of comfort before a game in front of a reporter. The blessings were given in a private setting, but the reporter asked several questions about the incident. Houle said the reporter promised him it would not appear in the paper but then put it in an article.
That story apparently prompted several complaints to the ACLU. None of those appeared to be from any of the students involved in Houle's basketball program. The school's principal asked Houle to stop giving blessings to his players, which is one of the reasons the ACLU will not pursue any action.
"If we saw this as a wide spread practice, then we might (file a lawsuit)," McCullough said. "But this is clearly against Church policy, too. If we did anything, it would be to talk to the Church first and then the school board. Someone pointed it out, and it got fixed."
Houle said he feels badly that the blessings have become a "public spectacle," but he wouldn't change what he did.
"If one of my players asks for a blessing away from school, I'm going to do it," he said. "I'm going to practice my religion . . . If anybody asked me for a blessing, I don't care if it's about a game, or sickness, or parents having trouble or my daughter, I'm going to give it. Am I going to do it on school grounds? No.
"No one can stop me from practicing my religion. I will stand accountable to my Heavenly Father. I will not do anything that will embarrass the prophet, the church or my Heavenly Father."