{"id":7869,"date":"2011-09-29T15:14:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=7869"},"modified":"2011-09-29T15:33:49","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:33:49","slug":"teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","title":{"rendered":"Teacher punishes student for responding &#8220;God bless you&#8221; to a friend&#8217;s sneeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saying &#8220;God bless you&#8221; when a classmate sneezed got an unnamed student a reduced grade at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, Calif. this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<object width=\"300\" height=\"450\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"salign\" value=\"l\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"&amp;titleAvailable=true&amp;playerAvailable=true&amp;searchAvailable=false&amp;shareFlag=N&amp;singleURL=http:\/\/ktxl.vidcms.trb.com\/alfresco\/service\/edge\/content\/212fd8a5-65ba-4091-8e64-8e97c6f7309a&amp;propName=ktxl.com&amp;hostURL=http:\/\/www.fox40.com&amp;swfPath=http:\/\/ktxl.vid.trb.com\/player\/&amp;omAccount=tribglobal&amp;omnitureServer=fox40.com\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"menu\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"devicefont\" value=\"false\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"scale\" value=\"showall\" \/><param name=\"loop\" value=\"loop\" \/><param name=\"play\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"pluginspage\" value=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" \/><param name=\"quality\" value=\"high\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/ktxl.vid.trb.com\/player\/PaperVideoTest.swf\" \/><embed width=\"300\" height=\"450\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/ktxl.vid.trb.com\/player\/PaperVideoTest.swf\" salign=\"l\" flashvars=\"&amp;titleAvailable=true&amp;playerAvailable=true&amp;searchAvailable=false&amp;shareFlag=N&amp;singleURL=http:\/\/ktxl.vidcms.trb.com\/alfresco\/service\/edge\/content\/212fd8a5-65ba-4091-8e64-8e97c6f7309a&amp;propName=ktxl.com&amp;hostURL=http:\/\/www.fox40.com&amp;swfPath=http:\/\/ktxl.vid.trb.com\/player\/&amp;omAccount=tribglobal&amp;omnitureServer=fox40.com\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" menu=\"true\" devicefont=\"false\" wmode=\"transparent\" scale=\"showall\" loop=\"loop\" play=\"true\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" quality=\"high\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Blessing sneezers is particularly annoying to heatlth teacher Steve Cuckovich, who told KTXL News in Sacramento that blessing someone is out of date in a modern classroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe blessing really doesn\u2019t make sense anymore,\u201d Cuckovich\u00a0told the TV news crew. \u201cWhen you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body. So they were saying, \u2018God bless you,\u2019 for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, what you\u2019re doing really doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Irked students and\u00a0parents of Woods High students disagree with the school\u2019s health teacher &#8212; and the principal says that he has spoken to Cuckovich, reports <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/calif-student-punished-for-saying-bless-you-56778\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Christian News<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>particularly after the instructor took it upon himself to lower a student&#8217;s grade 25 points for offering the blessing in Cuckovich&#8217;s class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d said parent Alan Johnson. \u201cFirst, the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, preventing a kid from saying \u2018bless you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Post<\/em> noted that the Vacaville controversy is just another example of what many perceive as growing anti-Christian, anti-religion bigotry in the state\u2019s public schools.<\/p>\n<p>This month, a 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with school officials in Poway, Calif. who ordered high school math teacher Brad Johnson to remove banners he has displayed in his classroom for 25 years, which proclaim \u201cIn God We Trust,\u201d \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d and \u201cGod Shed His Grace On Thee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In March, a 16-year-old high school student in El Cajon, Calif. sued the local school district after being suspended two days for bringing his Bible to school and sharing his faith with classmates.<\/p>\n<p>Wood High Principal Cliff McGraw\u00a0told the TV station\u00a0that Cuckovich went overboard in his punishment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe realizes he there\u2019s better ways to do that,\u201d McGraw said. \u201cWe don\u2019t condone that kind of punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, the health teacher has not been told\u00a0he must\u00a0allow students to ask God&#8217;s blessing on\u00a0sneezes\u00a0in his classroom.<\/p>\n<p>He just will find a lesser way to punish those who defy his ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saying &#8220;God bless you&#8221; when a classmate sneezed got an unnamed student a reduced grade at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, Calif. this week. \u00a0\u00a0 Blessing sneezers is particularly annoying to heatlth teacher Steve Cuckovich, who told KTXL News in Sacramento that blessing someone is out of date in a modern classroom. \u201cThe&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[976],"tags":[2217,2248,1658,1659],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","tag-education","tag-free-speech","tag-god-bless-you","tag-sneeze"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teacher punishes student for responding &quot;God bless you&quot; to a friend&#039;s sneeze<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teacher punishes student for responding &quot;God bless you&quot; to a friend&#039;s sneeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saying &#8220;God bless you&#8221; when a classmate sneezed got an unnamed student a reduced grade at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, Calif. this week. \u00a0\u00a0 Blessing sneezers is particularly annoying to heatlth teacher Steve Cuckovich, who told KTXL News in Sacramento that blessing someone is out of date in a modern classroom. \u201cThe&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-29T19:14:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-29T19:33:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teacher punishes student for responding \"God bless you\" to a friend's sneeze","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teacher punishes student for responding \"God bless you\" to a friend's sneeze","og_description":"Saying &#8220;God bless you&#8221; when a classmate sneezed got an unnamed student a reduced grade at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, Calif. this week. \u00a0\u00a0 Blessing sneezers is particularly annoying to heatlth teacher Steve Cuckovich, who told KTXL News in Sacramento that blessing someone is out of date in a modern classroom. \u201cThe&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-09-29T19:14:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-29T19:33:49+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze","name":"Teacher punishes student for responding \"God bless you\" to a friend's sneeze","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-29T19:14:32+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-29T19:33:49+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/teacher-punishes-student-for-responding-god-bless-you-to-a-friends-sneeze#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Teacher punishes student for responding &#8220;God bless you&#8221; to a friend&#8217;s sneeze"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12269,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions\/12269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}