Four Teens Find Trouble for Tebowing
EmailABC News’ Peter Madden reports:
Four Long Island high school seniors learned the hard way that “Tebowing” can get you into trouble.
Even as the fast-growing trend of striking a pose in tribute to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and his pious post-touchdown reflections reaches epidemic proportions, Riverhead High School handed down one-day suspensions Wednesday to four students. Twin brothers Connor and Tyler Carroll and their classmates Wayne Drexel and Jordan Fulcoly (three of whom play football) were orchestrating a hallway-blocking Tebowing session about 40 students strong. The school’s administration told ABC News that the demonstration presented a safety hazard.
“They knelt down in the hallway in between periods and made it impossible to pass,” said Principal David Wicks. “They were causing a situation that could have been unsafe. God forbid there was an accident or a fire alarm.”
Well-aware of the seemingly contagious craze in which his students were participating, Wicks insisted that his decision was intended only to discipline.
“These students had been given prior warning about similar incidents,” he said. “This was not anti-Tebow, or anti-Christian.”
At least one student believes the suspensions were a heavy-handed response to a harmless prank.
“We had no idea that we could get suspended for such a thing,” Connor Carroll told Prep Rally, a Yahoo! Sports Blog. “It was a joke between a group of friends that took a life of its own. We figured, at the most, we would just be told to stop.”
Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, earned himself doubters and devotees alike for his overt displays of religious faith on the playing field at the University of Florida. But after he led a few miraculous comebacks on the NFL stage, Tebow has inspired a legion of copycats.
Jared Kleinstein, 24, was perhaps the first. Having grown up in Denver, Jared watched at a bar in New York City as his beloved Broncos fell behind the Miami Dolphins in Tebow’s first start of the season on Oct. 23. Down 15-0 with five minutes left to play, the quarterback took charge and led his team to an 18-15 overtime win. While everyone else celebrated around him, Kleinstein noticed Tebow knelt down in quiet prayer.
So Kleinstein ran outside, mimicked the pose, got a picture taken, and posted it on Facebook, receiving a few “likes” the following day.
“I thought, ‘What if I could make a blog of me and my friends doing this around the world?’” he said.
He searched “Tebowing” online and discovered that no one had yet claimed the domain name. Kleinstein launched Tebowing.com on a Tuesday. By Friday, his new venture had 350,000 unique visitors; today, nearly two months later, it’s had over 1.5 million, becoming an international hub of Tebowing enthusiasm.
“I always thought I would come up with a business plan one day,” Kleinstein said. “That’s the American Dream. But I never thought I would come up with a word. I’m lucky. Something I created will be in the dictionary.”
Kleinstein says that the subtlety in Tebow’s gesture is what inspires him, so the trend should be more about an internal experience.
“When we created it, it wasn’t meant to be disruptive,” he said, “but kids will be kids.”
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Are these school administrators seeking their own notoriety by means of student suspensions?
Posted by: Ken | December 16, 2011, 2:15 pm 2:15 pm
How dare they show public reverence for God like we do on all our coinage, in our pledge, in our courts every day with a hand on a Bible! Secularization of church and state is ruining t6he country in a hurry and you won’t like the social and financial results AT ALL!
Posted by: DrJJ | December 16, 2011, 2:22 pm 2:22 pm
GOOD! They should be suspended. It is forcing religion on those who don’t believe in it. This is not a 100% religious nation and should never be! Keep religion out of the schools!
Posted by: Kevin | December 16, 2011, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Ar last a reasonable response to kids acting up. With stories in the news about kids being handcuffed for burping and arrested for saying a teacher was “fine” I was starting to think that admins. in school were incapable of being rational. Thank you David Wicks for being sane.
Posted by: eileen | December 16, 2011, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm
This had nothing to do with praying in school or being mean. The kids even said it was a “joke between a group of friends that took a life of its own. ” There were 40 kids blocking the hallways and NO ONE could pass. The principal – doing his job – had to take an action that would ensure that no other students would do the same thing.
Posted by: pksk531 | December 16, 2011, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
They’re basically making fun of him, which I think is really crappy. He’s got his faith. If he wants to kneel and pray, just let him. shut up already about it. This is a free country, remember? You dont want to pray or believe, fine. If he does, fine. You dont like it, look the other way. I wish everyone would get off this poor kid’s back. It’s his faith. Respect him for his right to choose.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 16, 2011, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
Since when has kneeling down in prayer been infringing on other peoples rights? Isn’t there such a thing as freedom of expression? But telling someone that they cannot kneel or bow down in prayer IS persecution.
Posted by: CHRIS | December 16, 2011, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
Secularization of church and state is ruining the country—how ridiculous. YOu think we should have state sanctioned religion? how stupid is that? You can’t force people to believe in God! The fact that we ARE a secular free country is EXACTLY why HE SHOULD be able to pray and do as he wishes with his faith in public and everyone should just back off and respect his choice to be religious.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 16, 2011, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
I’m pretty socially liberal. Of all the people who SHOULD be sticking up for him, is the liberals. FREEDOM FROM RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. Freedom to believe. Freedom not to believe, it goes both ways. I’d like to see liberals shout for respect for his personal choice LOUDEST of them all. hello????? Free country. Remember? Back off and leave the kid and I’m glad those kids were suspended for making fun of him. It’s bullying. I dont care if he’s famous, he’s a person, a regular person and making fun of him should be a form of entertainment.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 16, 2011, 3:56 pm 3:56 pm
Since when has kneeling down in prayer been infringing on other peoples rights? —they were blocking the hallway, sort of like a sit obstructing people from getting to class, but the bigger issue is, they were NOT praying, they were making fun of him. Not cool.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 16, 2011, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
making fun of him should be a form of entertainment.—excuse me –making fun of him for his religious beliefs should NOT be a form of entertainment. The kids seems sincere. Just leave him alone.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 16, 2011, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
GRANNY SAID IT BEST!
Posted by: Seriously | December 16, 2011, 4:07 pm 4:07 pm
Having both my parents as public school administrators with a combined total of over 50 year between them I can safely say that this principal is a friggin jerk.
Posted by: allen | December 16, 2011, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
I think it is heavy handed too! Warn them once and if they do it again then okay suspend them
Posted by: smoochie | December 16, 2011, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
and yes… they were making fun of him not trying to emulate him.
Posted by: smoochie | December 16, 2011, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
Does anybody “Tebow” for the same reason Tebow does? To give thanks to God?
Posted by: Brian Levine | December 16, 2011, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
Kevin, seriously how is this forcing religion on anyone. They were making fun of Tebow and they were blocking the hallway at school. You need to take a chill pill dude. And FYI you really need to read about the history of this country because it was founded on Christian principles.
Posted by: Seriously | December 16, 2011, 4:36 pm 4:36 pm
Tebow… What a joke.
Posted by: Yuliq Mahbaht | December 16, 2011, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
since when did praying become “tebowing”? did I miss something?
Posted by: RedNorland | December 16, 2011, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm
“We had no idea that we could get suspended for such a thing,” ~~~~~~ You and your buddies block the halls so that others cannot pass, and you had no idea you could get suspended for doing so? Duh. Logic FAIL.
Posted by: Minorkey1 | December 16, 2011, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
“Since when has kneeling down in prayer been infringing on other peoples rights? ” ——– It wasn’t the kneeling down in prayer that was the problem. It was the obstructing access and free passage of other people along the hallway. Their right to pray cannot interfere with another person’s right to pass to their classes or out of the building unobstructed. If you don’t believe me about this, try lining up a bunch of your friends in their cars across the expressway for an impromptu prayer session and see if the cops don’t hand out tickets for blocking traffic. The same tickets would result if you were simply sitting in your cars talking on cell phones or watching videos or making faces at people.
Posted by: Minorkey1 | December 16, 2011, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
Of COURSE Jesus listens to Tebow’s prayers, and uses his omnipotent powers to help the Broncos, but apparently ignores the prayers of 1000s of other equally devout Christians dying of cancer and other nasty diseases. Oh, and what about the prayers of the many little girls raped and strangled every year? Sorry, Jesus is too “tied up” watching the Broncos. Or maybe he’s just being “inscrutable”, as gods tend to be, right? These are the kind of awkward little problems you run into by believing in invisible magic friends in the sky.
Posted by: Darwin | December 16, 2011, 5:58 pm 5:58 pm
Granny 3:57 — Sort of like OWS blocking others from using streets and sidewalks and blocking emergency services from using said streets?
Posted by: trish | December 16, 2011, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
Not really trying to start anything, but can’t help but wonder what would have happened if it were a Muslim that put down a prayer rug in the hallway and proceeded to pray? There is enough room for all even if they are atheists. Everyone should just chill and have a little bit of sense. If it does not hurt anyone else, then get your feelings off your sleeve and shut the hell up.
Posted by: just charlie | December 16, 2011, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm
They’re a bunch of sheep. They followed a trend.
Posted by: Andrew Geiger | December 16, 2011, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm
Oh, give me a break. The Adminstration should be concentrating on more pressing matters at that school, issues that run rampant, rather than making a spectacle of themselves by suspending these four students. If anyone heard the interview, the boys respect and look up to Tim Tebow. They weren’t making fun of him. There are videos all of the Internet…kids were passing by just fine, there wasn’t anybody in harms way….this is just way overboard and poor decision making on the adminstrations part…This makes small town Riverhead look backwards…think outside the box guys.
Posted by: dee | December 16, 2011, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
UNBELIEVABLE—I hope many more people/groups/institutions start TEBOWING all over this country!!!!
Posted by: whathappened08 | December 17, 2011, 10:44 am 10:44 am
1st of all technically they were not tebowing. Tebowing is the act of praying on one knee at a sports event. 2nd, even so, the administration was wrong for suspending the kids, prank or not. obstruction of hallways almost always results in a detention, not a suspension, and if their rules state that its a suspension, then this must be the strictest school in the united states. They were wrong in every way and brought attention on themselves. They should resign or be fired after this;
Posted by: Daniel | December 18, 2011, 4:13 am 4:13 am
One of the comment in the article…..“They knelt down in the hallway in between periods and made it impossible to pass,” said Principal David Wicks. “They were causing a situation that could have been unsafe. God forbid there was an accident or a fire alarm.”………..What a stupid thing to say; do they really think that the kids would not move out of the way in the event of emergency????….also commented; “These students had been given prior warning about similar incidents,” he said. “This was not anti-Tebow, or anti-Christian.”….then maybe they should tell us what it was????…..would the kids have been suspended (even for one day) if they had planned a similar stunt such as “the tornado drill”????…..line up against the wall; kneel; and cover your head with your hands????
Posted by: Lady Laurea | December 21, 2011, 2:51 am 2:51 am