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."
I think it's funny. However, it already says these kids had already done things in the past in the hallway to disrupt the flow of traffic. I graduated in 96 and I can tell you from experience my high school was packed, and the hallways were always extremely crowded and some of them almost impossible to get through.
I'm usually all for funny stunts like this, but if you've already been warned because you did it before then that means you aren't trying to be funny, it just means you are trying to get attention. Maybe the 2 kids just missed a hug or something that day. But, if I were their teachers I'd embrace their individualism but tell them they already did the hallway thing and it's time to find something different.
I guess students in the hall are a hazzard. If the principal suspends all the students in the entire school, then I guess there would be no more hazzards in the hall (if it only saved one child, it would be worth it).
Now, if a teacher or principal or teacher told the kids to get up, and they refused, then they can suspend them.
My guess is the suspending principal is a Raider fan.
Annie, from reading the article it sounds like they had indeed done stuff like this before and had been verbally warned not to do it again. ....they did it again. And they only suspended to students who had been in trouble for doing it before... sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
I kind of blame CNN for making this sound even remotely linked to actual religion. Half the people on here are thinking they were suspended because of religion in school!
Maybe they had finished bulling for the day. Nothing wrong with praying after assualting some gay kids. It's what HE wants anyhow.
Wow, I can't even believe the stupidity you just showed right now. I can't even believe I am replying but I had to relay how stupid you are.
Crammed in a few lockers yourself, were ya? I'ts ok, cry it out.
Amusingly, regardless of the protests, your comment is pretty close to the truth.
It's amazing how you turned this into a gay agenda. Stop playing the victim. The word gay was never mentioned in the article.
40 students blocking a hallway is an unsafe condition. It disrupts the learning environment and presents a hazard in case of emergency. According to the the story, they had blocked the hallway on previous occasions and and they had been notified that blocking the hallway was an ongoing concern, they chose to do it anyway. Denman above references Hitlerian punishment (a bit of hyperbole there)–I agree about the hair and wearing the wrong clothes to the prom, but one must note that some behaviors, and blocking the hall is one of them, do pose a safety problem and does restrict the rights of others to the education that their parents are paying for. Students do have a right to walk to class without others preventing their passage.
Why is it ok for liberal's to block traffic, take over parks and cause issues in cities for their cause, but as soon as kids want to do it for their cause in school it's wrong. hhmmmm
I remember that in school, there was one kid in a wheelchair that always hindered the normal flow of traffic. Suspend him I say!!!
This reminds me of a bit by comedian Mitch Hedberg (RIP): "I was at a casino. I was standing by the door, and a security guard came over and said, 'You gotta move - you're blocking the fire exit,' as though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run.
Don't you just love in-your-face religious fanatics and wannabe "martyrs" for "The Cause"?? This is your religion of "grace" and peace?? If they weren't so busy playing their Wii's they'd be looking to Jihad against their "non-believing" fellow students. It's not enough to be free to have your religious beliefs, you just can't help shoving it down everyone elses throat.
Almost as much as I love atheists guilty of exactly the same mindset.
Whoopdeedoo ... your anger is palpable, it shows in every anti Atheist post you make. Didn't learn the love part in Sunday school did ya. To us Atheists it just comes naturally.
Sorry you can't handle your own tactics. Oh, and to answer your question, no I did not. Of course, to do so I would have had to be religious, attend church and go to Sunday School. None of which apply. You may return to asserting the superiority of your worldview and converting the believer.
Tebow isn't winning. It's the TEAM (remember, there is no I or ME in TEAM) that's winning. Tebow needs to quit wearing his religion on his sleeve. What a jerk.
I wonder if it would catch on, if he was bowing to Mecca?
Yeah, but there ain't no "we" either!
Last I checked team has both a M and a E.
Well – there is a ME in MECCA!
I pray in public and I carry my Bible in public to church in spite of what others may believe. My children are exposed daily to things that I don't believe in. Yet I don't post venemous retorts to others that have different beliefs. When it's all said and done we all have to live with the decisions we ourselves make. I pray they are the right ones.
It seems to me these adminstators today have to much book sense and not enough common sense....Go figure, Lord help this country and its children.
AMEN! Common sense would tell them that religion has NO place in a public school and the administrators should be severly reprimanded for allowing this gross display to take place on public property.
GOD has been very upset because some idiots put words in his mouth....Once, it is a touch down, a quarterback kneeled down and “thanks God". While the other sacked the quarterback, he kneeled down and "thank God"...God keep throwing his hands up and said "I don't take side, I have nothing to do with it"... If you respect God, please stop doing those silly things...
lol at the tools that think the kids are being persecuted for being christian. Its a prank, they were trying to be funny. There is zero religious motivation to the prank and in fact they were probably making fun of Tebow.
If they had done the same thing with their yamakas or kneeled down for their morning Muslim Prayer it would have been okay...
I guess they should have thrown bricks through the display cases, defecated in the hallways and clashed with fellow students. Then we would have called them brave, patriotic and standing up for their rights. Hypocrites!
Is it Tbowing or WWS ing.
I dont think it was religious. This is Long Island, not the bible belt. These kids just took a lame joke too far and got in trouble. End of story.
You could tell they were doing it for the camera (you can see them looking at it). It is kids being kids no big deal! No harm no foul, Come on principal act like a grown up by remembering what it was like to be a teen! I'm a 50year old grandma and I can see nothing that should have gotten this much attention.
I would agree with you, Jan. But they had already been verbally warned to not disrupt hallway access again. They did it again. What did they think would happen? They'd been warned.
At what point when they were laughing and yelling "TEBOOOWW" were they praying?
Its the same as "planking", just a prank to make a funny picture to put on facebook or youtube. Stop trying to turn them into martyrs.