Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kennyftw]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/09/30/2011-09-30_high_school_teacher_punished_students_for_saying_bless_you.html

Most people consider it common courtesy to say "God bless you" when someone sneezes.

But it makes one high school teacher in Vacaville, California, sick to hear it.

Steve Cuckovich, a health teacher at William C. Wood High School, decided to deduct 25 points off students' grades if they say the phrase during class, reported Fox40 Sacramento.

Cuckovich believed that it caused a disruption and interfered with learning.

According to the school district's superintendent, Dr. John Niederkorn, Cuckovich believed the students were purposely sneezing to create a distraction.

The move has angered parents who say the punishment is anti-religious.

"I think that's ridiculous. First the Pledge of Allegiance, now preventing a kid from saying 'Bless you?'" parent Alan Johnson told the station.

Cuckovich insisted that the move had nothing to do with religion and said he doesn't think the custom serves any purpose.

"When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body," Cuckovich told Fox40. "But today, what you're doing doesn't really make any sense any more."

The outrage over the class rule prompted Cuckovich to stop enforcing it but said he would continue to discipline students in other ways.

[The Cosmic Hum]

...not a bad idea to limit vacuous and puerile statements like this...along with...God damn you.
From one extreme to the other...both are phrases this world is better off without.

Instead of statements such as these...people could actually do something proactive.

Someone sneezes...someone offers a tissue.

Sneeze�"Tissue?"

[calendar]

The teacher needs to be replaced.

[kimchijigijig]

'Gesundheit' is a response that this Agnostic uses rather than other expressions.

[Unposter]

Reading comprehension people: the teacher was not upset that students were saying "God Bless You," he was upset because they were faking sneezing and students were disrupting the class.

Either this is a fake story or some reporter took a really strange slant or this is a case of a teacher without any ability to control a class or possibly the last two combined.

Sheesh...

[flakfizer]

[hogwonguy1979]

[jinks]

I grew up saying (and still say) "bless you". I have never heard anyone say GOD bless you when someone sneezes. Is it a N.Am thing to include "god" in the expression? Or is it just Bible-believers trying to subvert the rules around separation of church and state?

[The Floating World]

Ridiculous. He's a control freak who's trying to drill the humanity out of his pupils, whom were only trying to extend a common curtesy, which if anything helps to create community.

[radcon]

In the version of that story that I read, a student would sneeze then all the students would say "bless you" one by one and then the sneezer would individually thank each person who said thank you,. The kids were being smartasses and disruptive. Then the stupid parents instead of contacting school administration made a phone call to the local tv news who showed up at school much to the surprise of the teacher and principal.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F09%2F30%2FBAB11LBSGI.DTL

[The Floating World]

[Steelrails]

First off, the teacher seems to be dealing with kids being yutzes in his class. The kids could have said "Atheist you" and he still would have flipped his lid and I can't blame him.

That being said

[The Cosmic Hum]

[rainism]

look at the source.

that rag is the paper equivalent, if not even worse than Fox "News".

first of all, NO ONE says God Bless You.

they say "bless you".

the insertion of God into the story and the backdrop is painted to make it look like the socially conservative religious lunatics are suffering societal "persecution" again.

[Steelrails]