The Sneeze (internet chain mail)

About
The following text was received via email on 2006-05-30, and is included on Issuepedia as part of the discussion on prayer in public schools. The author is unknown.

THE SNEEZE
They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears. This class would not pray during the commencementsnot by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it. The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families. The speeches were nice, but they were routine.....until the final speech received a standing ovation. A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!!!! The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, " GOD BLESS YOU, each and every one of you!" And he walked off stage... The audience exploded into applause. The graduating class found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval. Isn't this a wonderful story? Pass it on to all your friends.........and
 * GOD BLESS YOU!!!!

In God We Trust, United We Stand. This is a true story; happened at the University of Maryland. It's inspiring.

Source
"The incident the e-mail is based upon took place on 20 May 2001 during the commencement exercises at Washington Community High School in Washington, Illinois. With the help of the ACLU, the family of Natasha Appenheimer, that year's valedictorian, brought suit to prevent the inclusion of the invocation and benediction traditionally given at the school's commencement ceremony. The suit was decided in the favor of the Appenheimers when, three days before the ceremony, the court handed down a temporary injunction barring the inclusion of the prayers on the basis of their having been deemed "school sponsored" (and thereby an unconstitutional violation of the first amendment's "establishment clause"). Though the school had said it would contest the ruling that barred it from sponsoring prayer at its graduation ceremonies, it dropped such plans in July 2001 once it came to some appreciation of how much such a legal battle might cost." -Snopes

Note, however, that the sneeze and the accompanying response ("God bless you!") was actually planned, according to Snopes, not accidental as given in the original essay. Even more importantly, the sneeze was by the student speaker and the blessing in response by a few of his classmates, who had been prepared beforehand.

While the speaker achieved the planned objective of having the words "God Bless You" uttered during the convocation, the blessing was addressed to him. The re-written version of the story makes it appear that in fact all the students were blessed by the speaker, which did not happen.

Comments
The fact that it was planned actually makes it cleverer and more admirable, to my mind. I don't see why the rewriters felt compelled to make it purely accidental. --Woozle 19:12, 28 July 2006 (EDT)

Copyright
The text's author and copyright status are both unknown, but since it is completely quoted in Snopes it is probably considered public domain or at least allowable under fair use.