A senior high school student from Tennessee was suspended for saying "bless you" to a classmate who sneezed.
Kendry Turner, a senior student at Dyer County High School, was punished for allegedly breaking rules formed by her teacher against saying words like "bless you."
"She said that we're not going to have godly speaking in her class and that's when I said we have a constitutional right," the 18-year-old told WMC.
Her teacher sent her to the principal's office where she was given an in-school suspension. "The assistant principal said if I didn't want to respect my teacher's rules then maybe my pastor should teach me because my freedom (of) speech and religion does not work at their school," Turner wrote on Facebook.
Her parents met school officials Wednesday. The school authorities explained that Turner was suspended not because of the words she used but because of the manner in which she said them.
However, according to assistant principal Lynn Garner there are "two sides to every story." He said some people may "spin things and turn them to make them seem one way." She further said that Turner's suspension following the incident was part of school protocol.
The New York Daily News reports that certain classmates of Turner supported her by wearing handmade T-shirts to school that same day that read "bless you." "It's alright to defend God and it's our constitutional right because we have a freedom of religion and freedom of speech," said Turner.
The school has a whole list of banned words in their class. They are 'stupid', 'dumb', 'my bad', 'hang out', 'I don't know', 'boring', 'stuff' and 'bless you.'
