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Teacher Bans Students From Saying 'Bless You' to Sneezers
Photo by mcfarlandmo via Flickr
Apparently one teacher in Vacaville has never seen the movie "Singles," and therefore doesn't know that all women want is for a man to say "bless you" to them after they sneeze.
Steve Cuckovich is in fact discouraging the practice of blessing someone after they sneeze among his students -- and thereby ruining the dating lives of God-knows-how-many young men -- with the stated goal of preserving class time. The L.A. Times reports:
He said a student would sneeze, prompting several students to say "Bless You." The sneezer would then thank each of the students who said "Bless you."
Cuckovich maintains that the rule has nothing to do with religion, although he does point out that the practice is somewhat outdated, since the blessing was traditionally given because people thought a sneeze expelled demons from the sneezer's body.
To implement his rule, Cuckovich is docking students' grade points every time they say the offending phrase. The rule has been poignantly called "messed up" by at least one student, and is very predictably causing some parents to compare the rule to banning the pledge of allegiance in classrooms.