A young woman claims to have been suspended from school after saying bless you after a classmate of her sneezed. She claims that she was just standing up for her religious beliefs and that she should not have been suspended.
Kendra Turner is a senior student at the Dyer County High School; she got suspended from school after one colleague sneezed and she told them bless you. Apparently, her teacher told her that that kind of talk is for church.
The young woman had this to say about the situation in which she was put:
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 senior felt the need to defend her actions and when she did it was then that she was sent to the school administrator where she was told to finish the class period in in-school suspension.
A photo of the teacher’s white board was sent to Michael Clark from WMC Action News 5 which has on it expressions among which bless you that were banned from being used in class.
Kendra Turner’s youth pastor, Becky Winegardner, said the incident sparked some headed discussions last week in church.
There were several students that were talking about this particular faculty member there that was very demeaning to them in regard to their faith. […]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.
The girl’s parents say that the school administrators claim the words were used as a classroom distraction and that she had shouted bless you across the room. They met with the school leaders and they said that the teacher who sent Turner to the school administrator claimed the young girl was aggressive and disruptive in class.
Classmates of the girl showed support in school by wearing bless you shirts. Kendra Turner said that she didn’t want her teacher to get in trouble for her suspension, but she said that she will stand up for her faith.
It’s alright to defend God and it’s our constitutional right because we have a freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
What are your thoughts on this story? Does it seem to out-of-this-world to be true? Share your comments with us in the section below; we would really love to hear what our readers think of this.
