{"id":16281,"date":"2022-11-22T11:42:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=16281"},"modified":"2022-11-22T12:41:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T17:41:21","slug":"employee-of-florida-high-school-files-complaint-against-bible-verse-on-paid-parking-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/11\/employee-of-florida-high-school-files-complaint-against-bible-verse-on-paid-parking-spot","title":{"rendered":"Employee of Florida High School Files Complaint Against Bible Verse on Paid Parking Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WFLA \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A high school in Pasco County, Florida, is dealing with controversy after a Jewish employee of the school filed a complaint against the public display of a Bible verse on a teacher\u2019s paid parking spot. Per\u00a0<\/span>WFLA-TV<\/span><\/a>, Marina Gentilesco, an employee of Pasco County Schools, walks by the parking spot daily with\u00a0<\/span>Philippians 4:13<\/span><\/a>\u00a0written on it. Despite it being a fairly popular and well-known verse, Gentilesco stated, \u201cIt said, Christ. I was startled by it. I was very upset by it.\u201d She also stated that it made her feel attacked. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s attacking me as a Jew. It brings me to the verge of tears because it brings me back to the 6 million that perished. Six million perished because of our faith \u2014 because we\u2019re Jews.\u201d Gentilesco noted her personal history with the Holocaust, saying, \u201cMy parents are Holocaust survivors, and I would never try to convince someone to change their faith. The Jews were murdered because they were Jews, and Christians survived, and it just brought back the memories of what my parents went through.\u201d She felt the Bible verse did not belong on the state-funded property.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gentilesco brought up her issue to the school and to the Jewish Community Relations Council to see about having the verse removed. However, lawyer and chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jonathan Ellis, stated that it was unlikely the Bible verse violated the Constitution, saying, \u201cBecause the school is giving the teachers and the students a certain level of freedom to decorate their own space or to individualize their own space, it doesn\u2019t necessarily run into a violation of the establishment clause.\u201d The district responded to Gentilesco\u2019s complaints stating there are no violations because no tax dollars are used in the personalization of the spot. The district further emphasized the ability of its employees to personalize their spaces \u201c…so long as the image or message is not in poor taste, they are free to express themselves.\u201d \u201cThere is no proselytizing going on,\u201d Pasco County Schools Public Information Officer Stephen Hegarty\u00a0<\/span>said<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not compelling students to do anything one way or the other.\u201d He added, \u201cIt has nothing to do with instruction. It\u2019s just a teacher expressing themselves just like they might wear a crucifix on their shirt. Teachers and students are free to express themselves.\u201d Gentilesco, however, is adamant that she still feels uncomfortable, saying, \u201cThis was just innocent, and I think it was just ignorance that she didn\u2019t realize that this would be a personal affront to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The controversy further highlights the tensions between public displays of faith on state-funded properties. In June, the\u00a0<\/span>Supreme Court<\/span><\/a>\u00a0handed down a decision that upheld football coach Joseph Kennedy\u2019s post-game prayers on the field. A survey of Americans showed that a majority of Americans\u00a0<\/span>supported<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the Supreme Court\u2019s decision. As Justice Neil Gorsuch stated in the\u00a0<\/span>6-3<\/span><\/a>\u00a0decision, \u201cRespect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic\u2014whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A high school in Pasco County, Florida, is dealing with controversy after a Jewish employee of the school filed a complaint against the public display of a Bible verse on a teacher\u2019s paid parking spot. Per\u00a0WFLA-TV, Marina Gentilesco, an employee of Pasco County Schools, walks by the parking spot daily with\u00a0Philippians 4:13\u00a0written on it. Despite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":16299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEmployee of Florida High School Files Complaint Against Bible Verse on Paid Parking Spot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Florida high school employee files a complaint against Bible verse written in parking lot of school.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Employee of Florida High School Files Complaint Against Bible Verse on Paid Parking Spot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Florida high school employee files a complaint against Bible verse written in parking lot of school.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/11\/employee-of-florida-high-school-files-complaint-against-bible-verse-on-paid-parking-spot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T16:42:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T17:41:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/11\/bible-verse-parking-spot_credit-WFLA-youtube-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. 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