(Published Thursday, February 1, 2007 10:53:57 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Carla McCann Gazette Staff
After meeting Monday, five area school district superintendents say they decided independently to cancel school assemblies featuring a group of ordained ministers.
The Power Team, which was hired to perform in March at Fort Atkinson, Jefferson, Milton, Palmyra-Eagle and Whitewater school districts, uses feats of strength to encourage students to resist using drugs and alcohol.
"Initially, we believed that with clearly understood parameters the assemblies would not involve any discussion of religion," said Peg Ekedahl, superintendent of the Milton School District.
But after further study, Ekedahl decided not to risk any appearance of violating the separation of church and state, and she cancelled the group's performances at both the middle and high schools, Ekedahl said.
It was a similar story in the Whitewater School District.
"We believe the assembly itself had good things to offer, but we already have other programs in place that address those issues," Whitewater Superintendent Leslie Steinhaus said.
Steinhaus and Ekedahl didn't say what prompted the Monday meeting, which included school district attorneys, but The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the districts took action after a community member e-mailed the school districts and raised questions at a Jefferson School Board meeting.
Jefferson resident John Foust told the Journal Sentinel he contacted district administrators about the Power Team after noticing a brief item about the group in a local newspaper's society column.
On the Power Team's Web site, one of its members is billed as the human cannonball "for running full speed and diving head first into a wall of ice 9 feet thick."
"Cannonball's" credentials also include being able to rip two decks of cards in half as well as being able to bend a crescent wrench into the shape of a U.
The Web site bills the Texas-based performing ministers as having the power to help two or three out of every 10 people accept Jesus.
Although Mike Wilding, an events manager for the Power Team, told the Journal Sentinel that the group takes care not to promote religion or politics while performing in public schools, neither the Whitewater nor Milton school districts wanted any misunderstandings centered around the assemblies.
The team had been scheduled to perform at 13 assemblies in the five districts before being cancelled, despite their assurances that Christian beliefs would not be mentioned during the shows.
"We had to weigh what is appropriate for the community," Steinhaus said.
