The Portsmouth School District seems to hold some students in higher esteem than others. The latest controversy centers on Anthony Ferola, a 17-year-old senior at Portsmouth High School, who has been told to refrain from praying publicly during basketball games.
According to Seacoast Online, Ferola prayed before games for his teammates’ health and to express gratitude for being able to play the sport they love. He says his coach later told him he could no longer pray at half-court in front of parents, students, and fans—but that he could do so privately in the locker room instead. For months, Ferola and his teammates had gathered voluntarily to pray before games. No one was compelled to join.
The district’s concern, according to Superintendent McLaughlin, is ensuring that the public school system does not appear to endorse any religion while also respecting Ferola’s First Amendment rights. But that balance seems to have tipped too far toward suppression.
Allowing a student to pray publicly is not government endorsement of religion. It is simply allowing a citizen to exercise his constitutional freedom of religion and expression. Ferola’s prayer was voluntary, peaceful, and inclusive. No one was forced to participate. The First Amendment does not vanish when a student steps onto a basketball court.
Contrast that restraint with the district’s willingness to compel student speech under its policy on transgender students (Policy JBAB). That policy mandates that all students and staff must address a student by the name and pronoun that align with that student’s gender identity. “The persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity,” the policy states, “is a violation of this policy.”
In other words, students are compelled to speak in a prescribed way—even if it conflicts with their personal, religious, or grammatical beliefs. The district insists this is about respect and inclusion. Yet when it comes to a student like Ferola expressing his faith respectfully, the same administrators move to silence him.
Where, exactly, is the policy that compels anyone to pray? It doesn’t exist. But there is a policy that compels language. The contrast could not be more glaring.
This double standard recalls George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The very people who preach inclusion and tolerance often create systems that exclude those with different beliefs.
We see similar signals across the Seacoast. At Winnacunnet High School, for instance, every student walks past a large boulder painted as a Pride flag. There is no boulder painted with a crucifix or a Star of David. The message to Christian and Jewish students is unmistakable: your symbols, your faith, are not welcome in the same way.
If Portsmouth administrators continue to limit Ferola’s right to pray, they may soon face a legal challenge. The courts have consistently affirmed that student-led, voluntary prayer is protected under the First Amendment. Ferola’s quiet act of faith harms no one—and silencing it only exposes the hypocrisy of a system that claims to celebrate diversity while denying it in practice.
It’s time for Portsmouth schools to remember that true equality means respecting all voices, not just the ones that fit a preferred narrative.
