lllinois student gets detention for hugging friends

[ShinyGreenApple]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/..._for_hugging_2

I weep for humanity, I really do. While I can see the reasoning behind the 'policy' (ie, prevent kids from making out in the halls) I think this is a bit extreme.

[Amethyst Hunter]

I heard about that tonight from my dad. @_@

Goddammit, I move to Florida for a year and a half, I come back and my home state appears to have gone completely batshit fucknuts insane. WTF happened in that year and a half I was gone?!

[Greenday]

Their school's rules make less sense than my Organic Chem lecture, my Analytical Chem lecture, and my Physics lectures all combined. I guess I would have gotten weeks of suspensions back in high school for kissing my girlfriend before seeing her off to class. I'm surprised she'd go to the detentions. I'd definitely break those senseless rules with my friends to prove a point. Go ahead, give everyone detentions. What will they do when no one shows up? Suspend the whole school? It's hugs not drugs. How can we stay away from drugs without hugs?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Pardon my French, but this policy, or at least the way it was interpreted in this case, is bullshit.

I can understand if she's groping her boyfriend and has her face stuck in his throat, but a friendly half-hug deserves detention?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Every kid in that school ought to participate in a massive "Hug In." They would have to use the entire school as a detention center.

[ArenaBoy]

Form a chain of hugs!

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with some people?

[ShinyGreenApple]

I guess they want to train a society of robots who fear to/have never learned how to show affection. Seriously, from the time I was 16-20, I was heavily involved with the youth/college group at my church. We hugged a lot. It was just how we said hello, you know? And people are more touchy-feely down south anyways. I can't imagine something a baptist church doesn't blink an eye at being frowned upon by a school.

[Titi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/..._for_hugging_2
While I can see the reasoning behind the 'policy' (ie, prevent kids from making out in the halls)

And that is why I am so glad that parents rather than cause a fuss before she completed her detentions, chose to use the media for when they go to the school board meeting for more detailed rules as to what PDA encompassed.

[iradney]

That's ridiculous
Studies have shown that touch has many beneficial side effects. Preemies, for example, benefit from laying on their Mom's chest. Hugging helps with feeling down. Improves immune function.
And so on. If we end up being in a society where shaking hands is the most physical contact you have, then I weep for the future of humanity.

[ShinyGreenApple]

For some reason I'm reminded of the people in the first His Dark Materials book who've had their daemons severed away . . .

[Kara]

"Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved."

There's something incredibly wrong with that statement. How can showing someone you care about them discredit ANYONE or be considered poor judgment? Now, if she tore her 2 friends clothes off and they got a sweaty girl sandwich going on the stage in the auditorium, that would probably be poor judgment. Girls hug! It's part of it! Trust me, it's in the handbook and everything.

I wonder if the principal is the same one I had my Sophomore year. I hung around a few idiots, sure, but one of the guys I ate lunch with came from a low-income family and was on the free lunch program. Anyway, one day he left the table and another friend showed me his lunch card. He had swiped it from the guy and wanted me to keep it in my purse. I declined and told him he was a moron, and that I'd kill him if he didn't give it back.

I didn't see the guy until the next day, and told him his lunch card was taken and we went to report it to the principal's office. The principal called him back in his office and that was that. Until last period, when a proctor came into the orchestra class to tell the teacher they needed me in the office. I was completely puzzled, and so I go in there to be informed that for being a co-conspirator I would be serving 2 days of in school suspension. I was pissed. I was the one who told the guy his card was taken, and I was the one who took him to the office to report what had happened in the first place! He said I was still a co-conspirator and that was that. They guy who had his card taken went back to him and told him I had nothing to do with it and he wasn't accusing me of anything at all. My parents were furious, and went down the next day to scream at him about it. He didn't back down on his decision. He said that when the other guy showed me the lunch card, I should have immediately stood up and walked away. Um, hello? That's basically what I did after threatening his life. I wasn't an honor student or anything, but I was the last person in the school anyone thought would get suspension. Even the teacher covering the In-School detention thought it was BS.

The same principal suspended another one of my guy friends once for shooting a rubber band across a classroom. But the formal reason for suspension was "Firing a projectile weapon on school property," which is probably the most awesome thing ever This was a couple of years before Columbine, mind you. Back when you could still joke about things like that.

[HYHYBT]

I can't imagine something a baptist church doesn't blink an eye at being frowned upon by a school.

Well, the school probably wouldn't like everyone standing up every 5-10 minutes to sing a hymn, either

[lordlundar]

And yet, I bet if there was someone in fatigues carrying the anarchist's cookbook, they wouldn't bat an eye.