Two "Tebowing" high school students have been suspended for blocking the hallway while mimicking the quarterback's famous prayer pose.
The boys were two of four students to trigger a wave of some 40 students kneeling in between classes, Riverhead High School Principal David Wicks said. The students caused a safety hazard, he said. The incident was captured on a smartphone and posted to YouTube.
"It was basically just a tribute to Tim Tebow," The New York Post quoted one of the boys as saying. "It was more than a religious thing. There was some of that involved obviously, because he prays. I guess it was basically like a moment of silence."
The two students received in-school suspension because they had been warned before about pulling disruptive stunts in the middle of the hallway, Wick said. The others received a verbal warning.
"This is about students causing an unsafe situation by blocking the hallways," Wicks said. "This has nothing to do with Tim Tebow or punishing the students for their religion beliefs. If they'd been sitting in the hallway with their legs crossed they'd receive the same discipline."
Tebow mania is sweeping the nation, inspired by the Denver Broncos quarterback's overt religiosity and knack for winning despite less than stellar stats.
"I think it’s wonderful that our students look up to sports heroes such as Mr. Tebow, but we can’t allow students to create unsafe situations in school," Superintendent Nancy Carney said in a statement.
"The students stated that there was nothing religious about their actions and that they were just having fun. We hope that these students and all of our students continue to look up to the positive role models in public life; we just encourage them to do it in a responsible way."
They, like Tebow, should be suspended. Keep it in church fellas. Thanks for playing.
It is a students right to pray in school, courts have upheld that for decades. it is not a students right to DISRUPT school. Christians need to understand that.
This is a crazy comment. I believe in freedom of religion, I believe in the freedom on non-religion, i believe in the freedom for you to be able to say things like keep it at home, but I also believe in the freedom for people to not keep it at home. If our culture were to take your one comment seriously all of these rights would be wiped away. Even your ability to make a comment like that.
Maybe the Russians were right, perhaps we need to stop out religion. What tools.
Robert, it wasn't the average Russian (or those they conquered) that wanted to stomp out religion, it was the communist leaders. That only lasted a few short decades and now that communism is gone the people are flocking back to church. Why? because I think most people have an unexplainable need to find God in their lives. and i don't think its ignorance, i have a Bachelor of Science Degree and the more I see in life, the more I beleive in a higher power.
At first I thought it said "Suspended for teabagging".
Y'all need to lighten up. Drop the religion vs anti-religion and stop freaking out over harmless stunts. Yeah, they were warned, but the school admins need to lighten up to.
They were told not to do something, and they did it anyway. In a few years, these kids will be out in the workforce: if they can't follow simple instructions now, how do you expect them to when it really counts? Kick their arrogant asses out.
Those who block the hall should be suspended..Those who block the hall while praying should not be allowed to attend any public school in the U.S.A., until they publicly admit, prayer is a mistake...Funny, right? Probably what some of you people think the left want's...Actually we just want you to pray somewhere else at school, just not in the hall, so you're not in our way, and we can get to class on time, and learn.
Ironically if instead they were going a rap about killing cops out beating "Ho's" nothing would likely have happened to them but they acted like they were praying so they must be punished!
You failed to read my full post cause I didn't say no prayer at school, only pray somewhere else, not in the hall, in my way, trying to get to class on time. If you were singing rap I would say the same too....
Good, prayer should be in schools. It was the founding fathers!
Not sure where the founding fathers said pray in school but we let just about everything else go there so if you can not be disruptive..go for it man.
You need to go back and relearn your history. Our founding fathers were largely Deists.
Where does it say that?
IT says that pretty much everywhere except Faux News...of course every single other source is part of the "liberal conspiracy" right?
Maybe the school should have a Tebow room for Christian prayer – like they do for the Muslims – let all the students
pray – they could even have a room for athiests for those that don't want to say thank you to anyone -maybe a tree in the middle that they could hug – no problem – lets accomodate everyone.
Religion = ignorance
Atheists = Intolerable Narcissists
Yes, let's pray to Tim Tebow.
Lets let the Christians go to a separate "special" school for the mentally impaired..there they can pray for a clue, all day long...have faith, you will learn! or if you do not like that, maybe a spin in the shower with Sandusky will do it for you red staters'.
FIRST OF ALL
I think a couple hundred people quoting Matthew is enough, don't you think? We get it.
I'm a teacher, and whether these kids were praying or not is not the issue. The concern here is that they were physically causing a blockage in a hallway that hundreds of students need to use. This means classes starting late, confusion, and a generall pain in the a– for everyone involved. If the students had been warned, they deserve the punishment. Praying is fine (and I remain not at ALL convinced that had ANY part of what they were doing), but their choice of locale was NOT.
general, sorry. Typing fast doesn't pay, kiddos.
THANK YOU – well put.
Right on.
Two over-reactions don't make a right.
I am a Christian, and I believe in separation of church and state...the ones in public praying are usually the biggest phonies of all.
in the words of the great Mitch Hedberg "if you're flammable and have legs you are never blocking a fire exit"
Why is this even in the news.
No one cares what you post here. You're all stupid for thinking your posts are changing/winning minds. HAHAHAAHAA!!
I didn't realize that, thanks for helping me understant.
Same to ya' !
Wait ... that means you're wrong ... now I'm just confused ... wait, now you have me confused ... your comment is really messing with my mind. I guess these comments CAN affect someone.
Publicity will make this spread like a wildfire. These administrators just lit the fire.
Come on ! It's harmless enough. If they were warned before about 'stunts' in school, then, they had their chance and blew it. Whether they were true in their intentions, we sure won't know. Crazy Kids !
I think it is kind of ironic with all this praying. Jesus taught us not to pray in places to be seen by everyone else as the hypocrits do.
...but He did not say not to pray in public – just don't do it with the intent to try and impress people with your prayers when they know you are a no-good lying, stealing, cheating, pharisee. Doesn't really fit the Tebow most people know now does it?
Yeah sounds pretty much Tebow spot on to me.