California Public School Teacher Disciplines Students for Uttering "Bless You"

According to this news account a Vacaville, California public school teacher disciplines students for uttering the venerable phrase "Bless You" after another person sneezes.  Putting aside the petty stupidity of this practice, it raises a constitutional issue.  Such an utterance is surely not curriculum speech, and so is not susceptible to teacher control on that account.  It's possible that the utterance could be disruptive, but I am skeptical that it occurs with such frequency that it materially disrupts normal classsroom work.  The sneeze itself is likely to be more disruptive than the recitation of "bless you."  This falls into the category of constitutional infractions that need never occur.  A little good sense and toleration of cultural mores avoids the whole problem.  

Comments

[Eric Biber]

According to this local news report:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/01/MNB11LBSGI.DTL&tsp=1

it really was all about purposeful disruption by students and a teacher attempting to maintain discipline. The confusion seems to be the result of people who are focused on finding evidence that they are, indeed, persecuted.