Everyone’s familiar with Tebowing, right? It’s kind of like planking, or owling, except a lot more ridiculous. Inspired by Denver Bronco quarterback and controversial sports figure Tim Tebow, Tebowing is described as “getting down on a knee and praying, even if everyone else around you in doing something completely different.

The Tebowing pose was taken from a impromptu celebration that Tebow made after a dramatic comeback win. You’ll see the pose at about the 4 second mark. The exercise, an obvious demonstration of prayer by the outspoken Christian athlete, has become a pop culture phenomenon, largely in part to the Tumblr blog the first celebrated the motion.

Now, it looks like we’ve had our first real Tebowing controversy as four New York teens have been suspended for striking the now-famous pose in the middle of their high school hallway.

The four students (all male, three of which are football players themselves) were suspended for one day after they orchestrated a Tebowing event that involved upwards of 40 other students.

While some people are quick to jump to the conclusion that this was an anti-Tebow or more generally anti-Christian move by the school, the Principal told ABC News that it was all about safety:

“They knelt down in the hallway in between periods and made it impossible to pass,” said Principal David Wicks. “They were causing a situation that could have been unsafe. God forbid there was an accident or a fire alarm. These students had been given prior warning about similar incidents. This was not anti-Tebow, or anti-Christian.”

Check it out for yourself. This smartphone video shows the incident in question –

Tim Tebow is most a controversial sports figure, to put it bluntly, because he’s very vocal about his religion. The former Heisman winner thrust religion in sports into the spotlight through various actions – Bible verse eye black, that anti-abortion ad that ran during the superbowl, etc. The “controversy” of Tim Tebow is only made more intense by the fact that there is an ongoing debate about his actual skill and ability to play football in the NFL. When you couple that with the religion stuff, it becomes irresistible to salivating execs at ESPN.

So Tim Tebow is a highly-discussed public figure these days – and it’s partway because of his outspoken Christianity. Do you think that these suspensions had anything to do with that? Or do you think that a bunch of young kids were just blocking up the halls during a class change and the administration went a little heavy handed with the punishment? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[Lead Image “Tebowarhol, from Tebowing.com]