2nd Grade Girl Suspended from School for Saying 'Hell'

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Girl Suspended from School for Saying 'Hell'
Thu Feb 5, 7:46 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!



PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A second-grade girl from Pittsburgh was suspended this week from her public elementary school for saying the word "hell" to a boy in her class.



But 7-year-old Brandy McKenith says she was only warning the boy about the eternal comeuppance he could face for saying: "I swear to God."


"I said, 'You're going to go to hell for swearing to God,'" Brandy was quoted as saying in an article that appeared on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Wednesday.


School officials were unavailable for comment. A Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman told the newspaper that the student code prohibits profanity but does not provide a clear definition of what profanity is.


The girl's parents, who said they believed their daughter's version of the story, were flabbergasted by the suspension and complained to the school principal.


"Kids are bringing guns and knives to school. ... They've got dope. And we're worried about 'hell'?" said her father, Wayne McKenith.


Meanwhile, the incident drew the attention of civil liberties experts as far away as New York.


"There was no threat and the word was being used in its intended way, not in a vulgar manner," civil liberties attorney Christopher Murray said in a statement distributed by his New York law firm.