Student Allegedly Suspended For "Bless You"

(H/T Missy Whittington)

As reported by CBS Charlotte,

A high school student was allegedly suspended after breaking a class rule of saying “bless you” after a classmate sneezed.

If this report is accurate, this would be a case of taking separation of church and state to a new extreme.  The student did not even say "God bless you", a common and polite way to respond to someone else's sneeze, but merely "bless you".  Will "gesundheit" now be the only permitted on-campus response to a sneeze?  The story also includes this paragraph:

The girl’s parents were told by school leaders that their daughter shouted “bless you” across the room and that it was a classroom distraction.

If the problem was the volume and not the words per se, that would be more understandable.  It's been a while since I was high school, but I remember that shouting across the classroom was generally frowned upon.  On the other hand, I have given and received "God bless you" more times than I can remember, and have never seen anyone get in trouble for that particular phrase.

Whatever you think about this, read the full story.