(PCM) Have we really become a society that is this over-sensitive to common phraseology or even common courtesy for that matter? A Tennessee high school senior was recently given an in-school suspension over saying “bless you” to a fellow student who had just sneezed.
I mean for many of us, the phrase “bless you” comes out without even thinking when someone around us sneezes. It’s like second nature and most certainly shows common courtesy and good manners.
Kendra Turner, the student who was suspended, claims that her teacher has a list of banned words on the chalkboard in her classroom and “bless you” made it on to the list. Other no-no words include “my bad”, “hangout”, “dumb”, “stupid”..etc. Turner also reveals that the teacher literally stopped the class to ask who had said “bless you”! Oh, the horror!
When the teacher asked Turner why she said, she claimed that she was only being courteous and that she had been taught by her parents and her pastor to say it when anyone sneezes.
Turner was then kicked out of the classroom and sent to in-school suspension. The school’s principal claims that the incident was not a religious issue, but rather a distraction taking place in the teacher’s classroom, but Turner and many others feel differently.
What do you think? Have we become too overly sensitive as a society or was this case truly a classroom distraction?
