A well-raised senior high school student in Tennessee was allegedly punished by her school Monday after saying "Bless you" to a classmate who sneezed.

Brought up as a well-mannered Christian, Kendry Turner's reflex to offer kind words to her classmate took a surprising turn.

The senior student at Dyer County High School was kicked out of the class after she reportedly broke her teacher's rule against saying words like "bless you."

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She was sent to the principal's office where she was given an in-school suspension by the school officials.

Turner stood up for her beliefs and cited that she has a right to freedom of speech.

"My pastor said I have a constitutional right - 1st amendment freedom of speech," she said.

The 18-year-old posted her story on Facebook and immediately became a hit after a blogger on MomDot.com shared it in a post.

"The assistant principal said if I didn't want to respect my teacher's rules then maybe my pastor should teach me because my freedom (of) speech and religion does not work at their school," she wrote.

Meanwhile, a photo of the list of banned words in their class such as 'stupid', 'dumb', 'my bad', 'hang out', 'I don't know', 'boring', 'stuff' and 'bless you' emerged after her story went viral over the Internet.

On Tuesday, the teen's parents convened with school officials who explained that their daughter was suspended not because of the words she used but because of the distracting manner in which she said them.

Meanwhile, Assistant Principal Lynn Garner said that there are "two sides to every story" citing that some people may "spin things and turn them to make them seem one way."

She also explained that the senior student's suspension is part of school protocol.

TagsDyer County, bless you, student suspension, kendry turner