Dear Steve Cuckovich

Dude, you decided to deduct points from your student’s grades for extending the common courtesy of saying “bless you” to another student who sneezes in your classroom. That’s fierce, man! Your Will C. Wood High School health students must be bummin’. So what if the original meaning of the phrase is outdated? Over time, its meaning has changed to a common courtesy extended between members of a decent, caring society. Don’t be such a square, man. You’re trying to nip the practice in the bud. You should be encouraging it.

I cannot help but wonder how saying “bless you” after someone sneezes is disrespectful and disruptive in the classroom. That is SO Gay! You claim that this has nothing to do with religion. You have a problem with just this one phrase. It sounds to me like you have an axe to grind. Is “gesundheit” verboten, too?

Your students and their parents are not happy campers. They probably think that grades should be based on academic performance and not on a student’s ability to conform to the whims of an individual teacher. Psyche! But what’s more disruptive to a learning environment, a sneeze followed by a blessing, or a teacher making a big deal over the use of a phrase that is not vulgar and wishes another student good health? Your behavior, and the righteous indignation it evokes in your students, is far more of a distraction to learning. You need to learn to chill, dude. Don’t have a cow.

Stevo, you’ve rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. You’ve brought national attention to yourself, and not the good kind. You made Drudge!You’ve brought unneeded attention to your Vacaville, California, high school. I bet your principal just loves that. It’s time to read the writing on the wall. Rather than promising to find another way to punish your students for blessing one another other than deducting points from a grade, it might be time to throw in the towel. Make like a tree and leave. More and more, people find attitudes like yours grody to the max. It’s one of the reasons why the number of homeschoolers in this nation is growing.

10-4 good buddy,

Arby