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John Foust - The Power Team
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Here is the story from Walworth County Sunday / Shopper.

- John


Schools cancel assemblies featuring muscleman ministers

From Google cache of February 16, 2007

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Plug pulled on Power Team

By Eric Kuznacic
Staff Writer

PALMYRA — When Palmyra-Eagle School District Administrator Bruce Gunderson decided last summer to schedule a performance by a Christian group of strongmen, he believed it would be an educational and inspiring experience for students.

But when a Jefferson resident expressed concern last month about the The Power Team’s religious background, the district and four others — Whitewater, Fort Atkinson, Jefferson and Milton — quickly canceled a series of March assemblies.

“(School administrators) were looking for something to make us feel confident that the assembly wouldn’t go into religious topics or situations,” Gunderson said. “After reviewing the (team’s) Web site — which is pretty heavily religion-based — we didn’t have that assurance.”

The Power Team is a Dallas-based group of ordained ministers who give motivational speeches to corporate groups, school audiences and in churches. Team members use feats of strength, such as steel-bending and ripping license plates in half, to spread a message of positive choices, academic excellence and abstinence.

Kim Terrell, The Power Team’s marketing and events director, said the group tailors each show to fit its audience and is careful to never bring religion into performances in public schools.

“We never have and never will mention the two no-nos of public schools — religion and politics,” Terrell said. “We’ve performed in over 26,000 schools now, and this is the first time we’ve ever had shows canceled out concern about our message.”

Terrell said the group does not promote its religion-based performances, which often are held in the evenings in a local church - during a school show. Still, he said, he doesn’t understand why administrators would fear the group’s message.

“They’re being cautious, and we’re glad they’re being that way, but we’re there for the kids,” Terrell said. “It’s unusual to us that people would react out of fear of something happening that we promise won’t happen.”

The issue brings to light the difficult choices public school officials must make when dealing with any issue involving religion. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the Arlington, Va.-based First Amendment Center, believes the growth of conservative Christian groups has made the issue all the more incendiary.

“The question becomes when are faith-based groups allowed to have a presence in schools and how should the school handle them,” Haynes said. “These groups often want to spread a character-building or anti-drug and alcohol message, but with Christian themes. This makes some parents feel like their kids were tricked into attending an evangelical meeting.”

But, he added, “As long as these groups follow the ground rules and don’t use it as an opportunity to proselytize, there should be no problem.”

Haynes said there is room for religion in public schools, but districts must be careful about how the topic is approached.

“Public schools are not religion-free zones and they should not be treated as such,” he said. “Teachers can teach about religion, but they cannot indoctrinate any particular religion in those teachings.”

Brian Rooney, a spokesman for the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center — a law firm that has sued school districts over religious-freedom issues — said canceling The Power Team’s assemblies was “a clear overreaction by the school districts.”

“It’s absurd,” Rooney said. “The school districts are hypersensitive to the threat of lawsuits by groups like the ACLU, despite (The Power Team’s) track record and their assurances that they would not cross religious lines during school performances.”

Rooney likened the situation to attacks on public displays of Christmas by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.

“It’s turning discrimination on its head,” he said. “These far-left fringe groups want to instill a sense of fear in Americans that anything with religious undertones is off limits in a public setting.”

That said, the controversy might make it harder for groups like The Power Team to be approved for future assemblies in the Milton School District.

“I think we always need to try to do our homework and find out exactly what these groups represent before approving assemblies,” Milton Superintendent Peg Ekedahl said.

Whitewater schools Administrator Leslie Steinhaus said it would be an overreaction for her to require school principals to get approval for each assembly. However, she will encourage them to do diligent research before going ahead with an assembly.

“We need to review, research and get references from anyone who wants to come into our schools to speak to our students,” she said. “There are a number of criteria that need to be looked at for future assemblies.”

Administrators said they have received feedback on both sides of the issue from concerned parents and other members of their communities. Gunderson, of the Palmyra-Eagle district, said he had heard several comments from parents angry about the decision to cancel the assemblies. Milton’s Ekedahl said she has heard from both sides, although most were from people outside her district. Steinhaus said she has heard from people who are upset by her decision, although she added she rarely hears from those who support her decisions on any issue.

Whitewater Middle School Parent-Teacher Organization President Julie Duval said she trusts school principals — in this case Eric Runez, principal of Whitewater Middle School, where her daughter is in seventh-grade — to make proper decisions when it comes to school-religion issues. Runez approved The Power Team assembly at his school.

“I think with this principal in particular, the kids come first,” Duval said. “I trust his instincts if he approved this assembly.”

Gunderson, meanwhile, said he has no intention of rescheduling The Power Team, despite assurances that religious messages are not part of school performances. That doesn’t preclude him from approving another group with religious ties, he added.

“I think this taught me that we have to look at all aspects of a group, but judge them on a case-by-case basis,” he said.