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Girl says 'hell' in school, suspended (2nd Grader)
AP | 2/04/04 | DAN NEPHIN

Posted on 02/04/2004 12:19:29 PM PST by kattracks

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A second-grader was suspended for a day for telling a classmate he would go to hell for saying, "I swear to God."

Brandy McKenith, 7, was suspended for swearing for saying the word "hell," but her family says she was referring to the biblical location of fire and brimstone.

She served the suspension Tuesday.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools' student code of conduct prohibits profanity, but doesn't provide a definition, spokeswoman Pat Crawford said. The school would not comment further.

Brandy's father, Wayne McKenith, said when he learned about the suspension, he thought perhaps his daughter had said something worse, so he called the teacher for details. He was told another student overheard his daughter say the word.

"I said, `Hell? She got suspended for that?'" McKenith said.

He said he asked the school to evaluate its profanity policy.

"`Hell' is like the least of the words in school today," McKenith said. "You go home and turn on the TV tonight and tell me how many times you hear the word 'hell.' And I mean network TV, not even cable."

Without a clear definition, the district could run into problems enforcing the policy, said Witold Walczak, legal director of the Greater Pittsburgh chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The school's policy says 'no profanity' and that's not further defined," Walczak said. "How should this little girl know that `hell' is not allowed?"

"It's questionable whether `hell' is even a profanity, and it certainly isn't in the way that she used it," he added.

McKenith, a suburban Pittsburgh police detective, said family members aren't "religious fanatics," but there's a healthy respect for the Lord, so he accepts her daughter's explanation.

"She's under the assumption that good people go to heaven and ... bad people go to hell," he said Wednesday.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: aclu; antichristian; clueless; discipline; hell; pa; pc; pittsburgh; politicallycorrect; pottymouth; publicschools; religion; religousintolerance; taxdollarsatwork; youpayforthis; zerotolerance
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

To: kattracks
Those whacky Europeans....
22 posted on 02/04/2004 12:41:59 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: kattracks
Thirty years ago this sort thing would have ended up in Readers' Digest in that column about the funny things that kids sometimes say.
23 posted on 02/04/2004 12:42:05 PM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: JustPlainJoe
When I was a kid we said "Hades" not "hell" and got away with it. And we said "gosh darnit" for you know what and got away with it. and later we did first base, etc, but that is a different story. Hell, if a kid can't give a geographic location of the soul who has gone bad, what the hey!
24 posted on 02/04/2004 12:42:34 PM PST by cajungirl (John Kerry has no botox and I have a bridge to sell you!)
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To: kattracks
My own 2nd grader just got a note sent home for talking about our nursing dog's "titties" ( he was referring to her pups nursing and the fact that she had 11 pups and only 10 teets). I was informed in the note that this sort of talk was inappropriate for 2nd grade. Now, I have to go explain to this twit of a teacher that my son was present during the birth of the pups and that he is smart enough to be aware of her nursing and attentive enough to notice her teets.
25 posted on 02/04/2004 12:43:07 PM PST by PleaseNoMore
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To: sir_Ranulf
I don't think you know children very well. They simply crave understanding of the soul or heart or whatever you want to call it. They soak up religious teachings, find them enormously reassuring, find them helpful in forming an identity and last of all develope in a moral way with the help of religion. To wait till they are adults may be courting disaster.
26 posted on 02/04/2004 12:45:09 PM PST by cajungirl (John Kerry has no botox and I have a bridge to sell you!)
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To: PleaseNoMore
Maybe he should have refeerred to them as hooters or bosoms,,what was he supposed to say?
27 posted on 02/04/2004 12:46:39 PM PST by cajungirl (John Kerry has no botox and I have a bridge to sell you!)
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To: biblewonk
This is just more "zero tolerance" B.S. When one speaks of "hell," the place, it's exactly like using the word "bitch" to refer to a female dog. Or, "ass" when refering to a donkey.

It's totally different than saying "H*ll, I don't care. Get off your fat *ss and fix it yourself, b*tch!"

28 posted on 02/04/2004 12:48:13 PM PST by newgeezer (fundamentalist, regarding the Constitution AND the Holy Bible, i.e. words mean things!)
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To: sir_Ranulf
Are you attempting to bait me? Well, it's not going to work. We'll obviously never find common ground and I'm not really in the mood to give you an opportunity to trash God.

Believe - or disbelieve - what you want, it makes no difference to me.
29 posted on 02/04/2004 12:50:04 PM PST by T.Smith
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To: been called a cynic
To: JustPlainJoe
What church do you belong to?


I go to a church that teaches the difference between judging people for the sake of feeling superior and telling them the truth for the sake of saving somebody from possibly disasterous consequences.
30 posted on 02/04/2004 12:51:54 PM PST by JustPlainJoe
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To: newgeezer
A correct sentence using the offending words I don't want to go to hell for letting my bitch doberman attack my ass who is an innocent animal,,would I get away with that at school these days?
31 posted on 02/04/2004 12:52:15 PM PST by cajungirl (John Kerry has no botox and I have a bridge to sell you!)
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To: newgeezer
As I have said, before. Zero Tolerance in Government School's, makes the socialist school principals and teachers not have to make decision's based on a rational thought process.
32 posted on 02/04/2004 12:53:29 PM PST by Kherghan (Somebody's Gotta Say It)
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To: PAR35
Different version posted with a fake headline here with 80 comments:

Different version? Looks like an entirely different story, to me.

Fake headlines are definitely a bad idea, though.

33 posted on 02/04/2004 12:53:54 PM PST by newgeezer (fundamentalist, regarding the Constitution AND the Holy Bible, i.e. words mean things!)
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To: sir_Ranulf
No one is stopping you from raising your own children the way you want to.

However, if you think it possible to raise a purely rational child without any sense of the supernatural or "mystical," then you must not have experience with children.

SD

34 posted on 02/04/2004 12:54:28 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: newgeezer
This is just more "zero tolerance" B.S. When one speaks of "hell," the place, it's exactly like using the word "bitch" to refer to a female dog. Or, "ass" when refering to a donkey.

It's totally different than saying "H*ll, I don't care. Get off your fat *ss and fix it yourself, b*tch!"

LOL What's really funny to me is that you spell hell, ass and bitch in the first sentence, but in the context of the second sentence you dint say "Hell, I don't care, get off your fat ass and fix it yourself bitch!"

Are you afraid that teacher may be reading your posts? ;-)

35 posted on 02/04/2004 12:54:47 PM PST by biblewonk (I must try to answer all bible questions.)
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To: sir_Ranulf
I think you are just trying to be inflamatory with comments like "disproven force" because at some level you know that "force" exists. Those Columbine H.S. punk murderers were raised without worrying about Hell and Heaven and God and morality. Is that what you prefer?
36 posted on 02/04/2004 12:55:25 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 (France kicked Germany's teeth out at Verdun among other places.)
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To: kattracks
In second grade my parochial school vicar used the word hell quite often, along with the words "burn in".
37 posted on 02/04/2004 12:55:58 PM PST by eastforker (The color of justice is green,just ask Johny Cochran!)
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To: cajungirl
LOL. Not likely. But, according to my public-schooled fifth grader, you're welcome to wear a "belly shirt" and those trendy, very-low-riding pants.
38 posted on 02/04/2004 12:57:54 PM PST by newgeezer (fundamentalist, regarding the Constitution AND the Holy Bible, i.e. words mean things!)
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To: sir_Ranulf
One day you'll know and remember this:
"Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess"

Prayers for you
Regards
RB
39 posted on 02/04/2004 12:58:42 PM PST by Rightly Biased (<><)
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To: biblewonk
The words are entirely different in the two contexts. That's why. :-P
40 posted on 02/04/2004 12:59:30 PM PST by newgeezer (fundamentalist, regarding the Constitution AND the Holy Bible, i.e. words mean things!)
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