Audio clip
Tina Welch
In Catoosa County, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School’s controversial ban on Bible-verse signs at football games led to the end of similar signs at Southeast High School in Whitfield County.
Although Southeast High has, at times, used Bible verses on its banners — the ones football players run through at the beginning of games — officials decided to avoid LFO’s situation by using only sports-related phrases, said Tina Welch, Southeast Cheerleading Association president.
“Southeast had used Bible verses for several years, just something to encourage the guys,” she said. “The (administration) got together and they all decided ‘Let’s not do it; we don’t need this at Southeast,’” she said. “It wasn’t a big issue.”
The decision was made the week after Catoosa Superintendent Denia Reese banned them at LFO, Ms. Welch said.
In late September, Mrs. Reese banned the signs after a parent warned that they could prompt a lawsuit.
A Bible-verse banner was used at Southeast High’s Sept. 4 game with Model High School, but not since, Ms. Welch said.
Whitfield Schools spokesman Eric Beavers said officials didn’t create a new policy but made a decision as administrators at the central office and at the school.
“We’re guided by state and federal law on those things,” Mr. Beavers said.
It’s “not common practice” for cheerleaders to use banners with Bible verses on them, he said. Southeast’s cheerleaders used a Bible verse run-through banner at the Sept. 4 game because they asked the football players what they wanted on the banner and the players said a Bible verse, Mr. Beavers explained.
The rest of this year’s banners were adorned with school spirit-related slogans, he said.
All banners are purchased and created by the cheerleaders with funding from sponsors and donors, he said. There have been no comments or complaints about the banners, he said.
“We haven’t had any parents or community members say anything about it one way or the other,” he said.
Ms. Welch said her senior cheerleader daughter, Cassie, had lamented that she wouldn’t get to make the banner she wanted for last Thursday’s “senior night” game with LFO. The sign would have read, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” from Philippians 4:13, she said.
She said she and the cheerleaders will miss their religious signs but they’ve moved on.
“We love Southeast,” she said. “We just wanted to avoid anything that would bring a negative light on Southeast.”
Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee and previously covered North Georgia education. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and later adding Marion, Grundy and other counties in the northern and western edges of the region to his coverage. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. Benton ...
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