{"id":7749,"date":"2011-09-26T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T21:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=7749"},"modified":"2011-09-26T17:17:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T21:17:14","slug":"tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee football coaches told not to bow their heads during student-led prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The football coaches\u00a0at Westmoreland Middle School in Sumner County, Tenn.,\u00a0got into\u00a0trouble for bowing their heads during a student-led prayer before a recent game.<\/p>\n<p>According to local NBC affiliate WSMV, the unnamed coaches didn\u2019t say anything aloud themselves, but bowed their heads respectfully in observance alongside the students.<\/p>\n<p>Now\u00a0the principal and the school district have officially ruled the coaches\u2019 participation to be an uncomfortable endorsement of\u00a0religion.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wsmv.com\/global\/video\/videoplayer.js?rnd=762367;hostDomain=www.wsmv.com;playerWidth=300;playerHeight=240;isShowIcon=true;clipId=6284426;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=Video%2520Player;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed\"><\/script><br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been telling our principals to kind of be looking for those things, because that is kind of a shift in how things have been done,\u201d district spokesman Jeremy Johnson told WSMV-TV News. \u201cIt can in no way appear like it\u2019s endorsed by Sumner County Schools personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The district, it seems, is wary of legal problems after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the district for violating the separation of church and state, saying teachers led students in Bible studies, invited a pastor to come speak to students during lunch and at least one instructor displayed a 10-inch cross in their classroom.<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether bowing one\u2019s head was considered \u201cendorsing,\u201c Johnson said it \u201ddepends what it looks like. That\u2018s where you kind of get into the gray area that we\u2019re having to deal with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Actually the coaches were not reprimanded. Instead, they were\u00a0required to sign letters indicating they understood the school\u2019s policy, which prohibits staff from appearing to participate in a student prayer in any way, even if it takes place after hours\/<\/p>\n<p>But longtime referee and local resident Tony Bentle says word of the incident \u201cblew my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just respectful, God-fearing people up here,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody in this town is offended if you pray. Nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Further violations of the policy could lead to disciplinary action for the coaches &#8212; as the school walks on eggshells to avoid further difficulties with the ACLU.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a violation of their rights. We should be able to bow our heads in reverence to God, wherever we are,\u201d Bentle told the TV station. \u201cIt\u2019s time we draw a line in the sand and say, you know, this is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The football coaches\u00a0at Westmoreland Middle School in Sumner County, Tenn.,\u00a0got into\u00a0trouble for bowing their heads during a student-led prayer before a recent game. According to local NBC affiliate WSMV, the unnamed coaches didn\u2019t say anything aloud themselves, but bowed their heads respectfully in observance alongside the students. Now\u00a0the principal and the school district have officially&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[976,966,354],"tags":[2225,2248,1638,80],"class_list":["post-7749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-persecution","category-prayer","tag-american-civil-liberties-union","tag-free-speech","tag-sumner-county","tag-tennessee"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tennessee football coaches told not to bow their heads during student-led prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tennessee football coaches told not to bow their heads during student-led prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The football coaches\u00a0at Westmoreland Middle School in Sumner County, Tenn.,\u00a0got into\u00a0trouble for bowing their heads during a student-led prayer before a recent game. 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According to local NBC affiliate WSMV, the unnamed coaches didn\u2019t say anything aloud themselves, but bowed their heads respectfully in observance alongside the students. Now\u00a0the principal and the school district have officially&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-09-26T21:16:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-26T21:17:14+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer","name":"Tennessee football coaches told not to bow their heads during student-led prayer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-26T21:16:14+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-26T21:17:14+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/tennessee-football-coaches-told-not-to-bow-their-heads-during-student-led-prayer#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tennessee football coaches told not to bow their heads during student-led prayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7749"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7757,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749\/revisions\/7757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}