student suspended for saying "Bless You"

People these days be crazy. "A high school senior in Tennessee says she was given an in-school suspension for saying "bless you" to a classmate who had sneezed.

Kendra Turner, a student at Dyer County High School, told WMC-TV that when her teacher told her she had broken a class rule against invoking religious terms, she complained.

“She said that we’re not going to have godly speaking in her class," Turner said, "and that’s when I said we have a constitutional right. ... It’s all right to defend God and it’s our constitutional right, because we have a freedom of religion and freedom of speech."

Turner was then sent to an administrators office and given an in-school suspension. Turner's parents say that school officials told them she was suspended because shouted "bless you" and disrupted the class.

According to the article "Local pastor Becky Winegardner said this wasn't the first time Turner's teacher had clashed with students over religion.

“There were several students that were talking about this particular faculty member there that was very demeaning to them in regard to their faith,” Winegardner told WMC. “This was something that had come up previously in the last few weeks just since the beginning of school, and I shared with all of those students what their rights were.”

According to Turner the teacher has a list of "banned terms" on her whiteboard that include: Bless you,' 'hang out,' 'my bad,' 'dumb,' 'stupid,' 'stuff'.

So what do you guys think? Was Turner being disruptive or was the teacher being a jerk? Can teachers really enforce these "banned terms" they create? It seems like that's something that should be left up with an administrator. I could see not allowing "dumb" and "stupid" to be said in class, but "Bless You" is a perfectly fine term and I don't have a problem with "stuff" unless its being overused.

What?!..

I'll wait to have the full story before deciding

Yep.

However, I don't consider "bless you" a religious term. Certainly not after sneezing.

While I think the teacher is ridiculous for throwing a fit for banning the term "bless you", I wouldn't be surprised if the main reason the student got the In School suspension was where she talked back to the teacher about constitutional freedoms and whatnot which could very well have been considered disruptive. Impossible to say, since none of us were actually in the room.

Still ridiculous.

Fair enough.

Next will be the thought police (1984)

I call BS... Stories like this flood Facebook and some how major news sources pick it up as fact while doing no research

that's stupid, people say "Jesus Christ" all the time as an interjection without any religious intent in doing so

upon further reading on this it wasn't because she SAID "bless you", it's because she screamed it across the classroom the classroom, and it's "God bless you!!", not that should make a difference

anyhow, funny someone who speaking of freedom of religion would wear this shirt, which echoes the right wing belief that freedom of religion means interjecting dominant right wing evangelical Christian policies in government, because that's what freedom of religion and separation of church and state means...

WTF?

i really want to know the reasoning behind banning the term "my bad"

It sounds like the student said it just to disrupt the class and get a rise out of the teacher, but that teacher sounds insane; seriously, they aren't allowed to say "hang out," or "stuff".. wtf.

Either way, suspension is way too harsh of a punishment just for speaking out of turn.

Promote the teacher to administration.

This is a battle for control over future generations.

Forgive me if I don't take the students word of this story at face value. 10 bucks says its all bullshit.

Doubt this is real, it happened in Tennessee ffs.

I find it quite funny that people think this "modern" movement of bashing monotheism is anything new or that it's having any drastic effect on how people think. If anything these days more people are joining religions and thanks to their bashing of religion people know faith better than ever.

Keep up the good work haters!

On topic this whole story is pretty ridiculous.

Umm according to that second article "When she defended her actions, the teacher told Turner to see an administrator. The student said that she had to finish the class period in in-school suspension."

So I think it wasn't a 'suspension' really so much as basically detention. And it sounds like the teacher basically didn't want to start an argument over this in class.

On the whole I think it's stupid to be banning "bless you" unless somehow it's being used disruptively (idk maybe kids keep fake coughing and sayings bless you to disrupt the class), but this doesn't seem news-worthy.

I thought one of the traits schools were suppose to teach their students is being nice and kind to everyone? (even if just a little)

@whipassmt: never heard the phrase "godly speaking" before...but I can picture the teacher saying it perfectly (I just want to add how interesting it is to see a real and digital cowboy posting above me)

God bless those people. Bless their little hearts.

I like you, your funny.

Sounds like the story might be twisted a bit. I'll wait and see though.

Both the teacher and the student are stupid.

I don't buy it...then again, we have little girls getting expelled from Christian schools for not being girly enough, so I guess it is possible...

I thought it was kind of funny. I say bless you all the time at work, if a store manager or ASM ever did that to an employee, they would get slapped with a lawsuit so fast... What are the laws for schools now? Can a parent fight for their kid for something like this or what?

@-paranorman-: For a second there I thought you were saying that if a manager said bless you to an employee, they'd get a lawsuit XD

This is my thoughts. I don't think anybody would be punished for saying "bless you".

I think like there was more to it, like maybe that she was just "one of those students", and acted out in class. Now maybe she's just using that to defend herself.

the un-oppressed christian majority love to pull out the oppressed victim card.

Good I like stupidity

i forgot how religion can serious be

There was a religious teacher in Louisiana who ridiculed a Buddhist student because of his faith. Stupid, unaccepting people come in all different colors and creeds. I'm an atheist, and I still say "Bless you" out of habit. Whenever someone says that or "God bless you" to me, I take it as a complement. Just roll with it; they're not being mean.

However, I doubt the student was sent to the office just for saying that. It just doesn't make much sense. Either the student isn't telling the whole truth, or the teacher has major issues.

I bet she did disrupt the class. And then argued with the teacher. So she got what she deserved, really.

My guess is this is likely the case. I'm not sure that even this warrants suspension (perhaps detention), and even the student's side of the story doesn't constitute so much as a detention so it seems that she was over-punished in my view.

On a side note I wonder if new outlets would bother picking this story up if it weren't for the perceived "religious freedom" aspect.

I don't buy this story

What about "hang out"?

To bad this is happening :-( Well God Bless You All! :-)

Is that the full story?

Nope.

"According to [Principal] Dodds, Turner was not given an in-school suspension. She wasn’t sent out of the classroom, either — she chose to walk out. And, most importantly, she wasn’t punished by the teacher for saying “God bless you” — however, the teacher did admonish her for “disrupting the classroom.”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/08/19/did-a-high-school-student-really-get-suspended-for-responding-to-a-sneeze-with-bless-you/

this thread and the story it links is bait

So this is about as real as the war on Christmas.

Muh persecutions!

Yeah, I highly doubt that's all of the story. I'm gonna take a guess and say that the teacher ask the classroom to remain quiet, the girl open her mouth to say bless you to a sneezing student, teacher told the girl to be quiet, girl catches an attitude towards the teacher for telling her to be quiet after saying bless you, the two argue, and the girl storms out without even being told to leave. That's just a guess because I remember that shit happened often in my high school, where students would attempt to get teachers fired lol...

Well, regardless of the story details...

..wtf is that? ^ :D

Haha, well with how lawyers look for the cheapest ways to get money and how civilians can twist and abuse the justice system these days, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened too.

Yep, a lot of people think that would be a perfectly normal thing to do; that's why I read it that way =P

Epicous Facepalmous.

For your information, the classification for this would be called "ISS" which stands for "In-School Suspension." That is an alternative to out of school suspension. That is abbreviated as OSS or at least it was when I was in high school.