The anti-war movement had a phrase: "Arms are for hugging." They wanted the United States to stop participating in the arms race.
Conrast this with Girl gets detention for hugging friends:
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A 13-year-old junior high school student was given two days of detention after school officials spotted her hugging friends after school last Friday.
Megan Coulter, an eighth-grade student at Mascoutah Middle School, was hugging her friends goodbye after school Friday when vice principal, Randy Blakely, saw her and told her she would receive two after-school detentions.
Blakely had previously warned Coulter that she was in violation of the school's policy on public displays of affection after she was seen hugging a student at a football game.
The school's policy says that “displays of affection should not occur on the campus at any time.”
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Mascoutah Middle School has decided that arms are not for hugging.
This is a fairly classic case of Zero Tolerance taken to extremes. Public schools often do a poor job of stopping teachers from sexual abuse of their students, but they raise a fuss when one student hugs another. As Matt Johnston writes this is a double standard.
(Hat tip: Opinion Journal)
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Technorati tags: public, school, sexual, abuse
2 comments:
I couldn't believe this when I saw it. Looking at my girls and their friends - well - they always hug each other goodbye. It's a very innocent and open thing to do.
In many societies hugging is normal and expected. I think there is value in children showing that they care for each other, and the physical contact reinforces the connection.
It sounds like the principal was way out of line.
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