Student Punished With Lower Grade for Saying Forbidden Words 'Bless You' in Class

By CP News Briefs, Friday, September 30, 2011

A teacher from California has lowered a pupil’s grade for saying “bless you” to a fellow student in response to a sneeze.

Steve Cuckovich, a teacher at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, said the phrase “bless you” after someone sneezing is “disruptive” to his class, and has banned all of his students from saying it. To show everyone he was not making idle threats he even marked down a student’s grade when he dared to say the forbidden words.

Cuckovich told ABC news, “When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body. So they were saying, 'God bless you' for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you're doing doesn't really make any sense anymore.”

Locals have not been impressed by the seemingly over-strict rule. Some parents have gone as far as accusing the teacher’s rule as being anti-religious: “I think it's ridiculous, first the Pledge of Allegiance, now preventing a kid from saying "Bless you"?,” said parent Alan Johnson. “Everybody has their right to their own beliefs but they don't have the right to impose those beliefs on other people, and especially not schoolchildren.”

But Cuckovich defended his rule saying, “It's not got anything to do with religion. It's got to do with an interruption of class time,” according to FOX40.

The teacher has stopped marking down students’ grades for saying the phrase after complaints from parents but he said he will find another form of punishment.

“He realizes there's better ways to do that. We don't condone that type of punishment,” said school Principal Cliff DeGraw.

“The teacher believed that students were dramatically sneezing and responding in repetitive fashion [saying] 'Bless you',” said school district superintendent Dr John Niederkorn. “We are reviewing the impact of this disruption and the student grading policy. Certainly a blessing by one individual to another after a sneeze is a welcomed acknowledgement of a social norm. Hopefully it is not abused as a disruption of classroom instructional activities.”