Student was suspended for saying " (Edit) Bless you", to someone who sneezed

[iamserious]

ICStats said:

iamserious said:

Arcturus said:

spurgeonryan said:

Turner, is a newly enrolled senior at Dyer County High School and admits to breaking a classroom rule by saying "bless you", but she said that rule, violated her First Amendment rights.

"Bless you, hang out, my bad, dumb, stupid, stuff, and things like that," Turner said.

Those are the words Turner said are banned by her computer teacher at Dyer County High School.

"She told me that we're not going to have godly speaking in her class," Turner said. "I said, 'well my pastor told me it's my constitutional right.'"

While the rule is stupid, how was her first amendment right violated?

Freedon of speech. 

Freedom of speech protects you from Congress enacting laws that would get you arrested or penalized for expressing your opinion, as long as what you say doesn't violate other laws like libel, slander, copyright and others.

Freedom of speech is not a license to say anything anywhere.  An institution that you participate in can have rules on what is acceptable to say, for example a company usually has a code of conduct and breaking it can lead in getting fired or disciplinary actions.  Schools have rules, and a teacher can set classroom rules and use several disciplinary actions if they are not followed.

You are right on. However, prohibiting someone from saying "bless you" or "God bless you" while in class when someone sneezes is a rediculous rule and I would personally feel offended by it. If it was a blanket no talking time rule then that is how it should be treated. The school seems to think that it can prohibit any words it wants maybe they will prohibit "if", "and" or "but" next.