When a classmate sneezed, Kendra Turner simply said “bless you.”
Those two words landed her an in-school suspension. Turner says her teacher told her that was “language for church.”
“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," Turner explained.
WMC-TV reports the Dyersburg, Tennessee, school supports the teacher and says there is more to the story.
"This was not a religious issue at all, but more of an issue the teacher felt was a distraction in her class," assistant principal Lynn Garner told the Dyersburg State Gazette. Garner says the teacher claims Turner raised her voice when she responded, causing the problem.
Turner told the paper she didn't believe that.
"She asked why I said it, and I told her I was being courteous and she asked me who told me that it was courtesy?" Turner continued. "I told her my pastor and my parents taught me to say it."
Fox News reports some kids at the school are wearing shirts with "bless you" written on them to show their support.
Garner says the suspension only lasted the rest of that hour and in his opinion it has “really been blown out of proportion on social media."
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