Professor Punishes Students for Saying ‘Bless You’ in Class

The Gateway Pundit ^ | 8/27/14 | Jim Hoft

[Nachum]

Professor Dr. Leon Gardner will punish his students at the College of Coastal Georgia with a 1% grade deduction for each occurrence. CBS Local reported:

One professor at the College of Coastal Georgia has banned students from saying “bless you” in his class.

Campus Reform reports that Dr. Leon Gardner, assistant professor of chemistry at the College of Coastal Georgia, pointed out his six rules on behavior on his Introductory Physics class syllabus.

According to the #6 under the “Behavioral Deduction” section of the syllabus, students’ grades will be lowered for: “Saying ‘bless you.’ We are taught that it is polite to say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes. However, if you say this while I am talking, it is NOT polite, it is very rude!”

[A Cyrenian]

If saying “bless you” is the infraction, why not respond with, “you are blessed”?

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Someone should take him out back and beat his ass until he cries to God to make it stop.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

I wonder how legal this is, say, if a student were to challenge it by walking into the class tomorrow and saying it 100 times as soon as class starts. Normally I do not support that kind of disruption

Well either that or some other Christian reference, such as "Thank you Jesus" or "Jesus loves you professor", or maybe bow their heads in prayer before a test, and see if he tries to "prohibit the practice thereof".

Does the school receive any "government money"?

[Clintonfatigued]

Here’s another one. It’s not a big one, but it’s part of a larger emerging pattern.

[ican'tbelieveit]

I have allergies and sneeze periodically and it has nothing to do with being sick.

Sometimes I get a tickle in my throat or swallow something wrong and it has nothing to do with being sick.

[Da Coyote]

Fire his slimy liberal as...er...Obamahole.

NOW!

[Clump]

This professor is just trying to use “not interrupting him” as a pretext to inflame Christians.
That way he can see who defies his orders and punish them accordingly.
Im very familiar with little people like this.
During my time in college and law school did i ever witness a “bless you” as being disruptive to the class.
Of course I’m speculating about the motive of the professor here, but that’s what this forum is for.

[agrarianlady]

I’ve been in classes where children used this opportunity to be completely rude to the teacher. I can understand using it in common, every day life situations, but a classroom is large. I’ve also been in plenty of company meetings - no one interrupts the boss with a “bless you” across the room.

I’ve been a Christian for most of my life — I see nothing in the Bible about needing to ward off evil spirits from a sneeze. That’s just hocus pocus. It’s a nice custom, and that’s it.

[RedMDer]

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[fieldmarshaldj]

I hate Professor Nazis.

[GRRRRR]

and, it was thought that during a sneeze that your heart might stop. If it continued to beat, then you were “God Blessed” to still be alive. Germany back in them Dark Ages etc.

[353FMG]

No First Amendment rights any longer in class?

Saying FU, every time someone sneezes, would probably more acceptable in school these days.

[Vision]

And I believe you’re rude.

[paladinan]

Well... I could understand (though I’d think it a bit over the top to word it like he does) if he simply said “no talking during my class!” But why specifically would he go out of his way to single out “bless you”, and “flag” it as being “especially rude”, to the neglect of lots of other sayings which I’ll not mention? That smacks of an agenda which is specifically targeting religious speech; it makes no sense, otherwise (e.g. why is wishing someone a blessing “especially rude”?)

I’ve been teaching for 20 years, and having someone say “bless you” never offended me in the slightest (why would it?); even in the few cases where a student was obviously “playing it up” (for laughs, for distraction value, etc.), I could usually end the issue with a quiet raised eyebrow, shaking my head “no” slightly, and giving a subtle “keep it down” hand gesture.

I’m starting to think that this guy is a bit insecure in his classroom...

[Oliviaforever]

By the fact that he is teaching a Physics class shows that it is very possible that he is an atheist or agnostic and will do everything he can to destroy the academic careers of Christians.

All it would take is for one student in his class of 100 to sneeze, and 99 Christian students to say “Bless You” and those 99 students would lose a point.

Now suppose over the semester, each of the students sneeze two times and each of the 99 students say “Bless You,” that wound be 19800 “Bless You” said in class and 19800 points the professor can take off of Christians’ grades.

He will Destroy the academic careers of Christians!

[ROCKLOBSTER]

He can’t flunk the whole class. Those affected should be able to bring many individual lawsuits.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Substitute chemistry teacher? Hat tip to robin Williams in Peter Pan.

[Oliviaforever]

“He can’t flunk the whole class. Those affected should be able to bring many individual lawsuits.”

Not the whole class, but only the Christians in his class would be failed as they would be the only ones saying “Bless You.”

[paladinan]

agrarianlady wrote:

I’ve been in classes where children used this opportunity to be completely rude to the teacher. I can understand using it in common, every day life situations, but a classroom is large. I’ve also been in plenty of company meetings - no one interrupts the boss with a “bless you” across the room.

That's just it: no sensible person would interrupt the boss by yelling *anything* across the room (short of an emergency). So: why single out "bless you", even if some kids happened to use it as a pretext for misbehavior? Give a calm verbal warning (the quieter, the better, in my experience... silent is even better), or--in really flamboyant cases, give the kid a calm scolding in the hall, a detention, etc... but give it to them *for yelling* (or talking out of turn). NOT for using those specific words! Not only is this "don't say 'bless you'" issue just asking for a lawsuit (and rightly so), but it's also pretty stupid: it's painting a sort of "target" on the specific words and makes them all the more attractive for mischievous kids to try them! (Honestly: am I the only teacher who's encountered that phenomenon?)

The professor doesn't seem to know much about how kids behave... nor much about how to build rapport with students. (Hint to him: try caring more about them than about your bloody dignity and orations! Love is firm and even tough, but never snotty and arrogant.)

[jonno]

Agreed. There is such a thing as discretion (a time and a place for everything).

But perhaps that is too nuanced...