I checked this story to see if it was a hoax, but it actually happened. In America. In Tennessee.

A student was sent to the principal's office after saying "bless you" to another student who sneezed in class.

Kendra Turner, 17, of Dyersburg, Tennessee claims the phrase was on a list of things students were not allowed to say in that class, including "my bad," ''hang out," ''dumb," ''stupid" and "stuff."

The Associated Press reports that after a fellow classmate sneezed, Turner said "Bless you." The teacher then asked her why she said it.

"I told her I was being courteous, and she asked me who told me that it was courtesy?" Turner said. "I told her my pastor and my parents taught me to say it."

Turner was then told to go to the principal's office, where she was placed in in-school-suspension for the remainder of the period.

Assistant Principal Lynn Garner said teachers can set their own classroom rules, which includes asking their students to avoid distraction in the classroom.

During a news conference outside of a church following the incident, Turner said that she wishes God could be able to be talked about more in school.

Garner stated, "In this case, this was not a religious issue at all, but more of an issue the teacher felt was a distraction in her class."

The incident could have been a parody skit on Saturday Night Live of political correctness and anti-religious extremism. The sheer stupidity of the teacher, the principle, and the school administration boggles the mind. I'd ask "what were you thinking" except it's obvious they gave no thought at all to what they were doing.

And it makes you wonder: How many more idiot teachers are there in America who enforce such gob-smackingly idiotic speech codes?