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Middle School Bans Hugging

A veto on embraces upsets students, sparks Facebook campaign.

By Rebekah_Schilperoort Oct 4, 2012 2:34PM

We’ve heard of banning cell phones, drugs and even certain clothing items, but hugs? 

School officials at Chase Middle School in Forest City, N.C., have declared that hugs between friends and other classmates are not appropriate school behavior, the New York Daily News reports.

As shocking as it may be, it turns out this kind of policy isn’t all that uncommon.

Photo: Courtesy of FOX Carolina

 

 

 

 

 

In 2010, students at West Sylvan Middle School in Portland, Ore., were told that embracing would no longer be tolerated because it disrupts learning. The principal received complaints from parents about the pervasive "culture of hugging" at the school.

In March of this year, a New Jersey middle school declared itself a "no hugging school" after some "incidents of unsuitable, physical interactions," according to principal Tyler Blackmore.

Bing: Read more about the school's hugging ban.

But the students at Chase Middle School aren’t taking the new rule lying down. Eighth-grader Parker Jackson and his friends have created a pro-hugging Facebook page and students also gathered at the school to "hug as many people as you can" to protest the school's ban.

Photo: Courtesy of FOX Carolina

Read the full story on Fox Carolina

 

 

 

314Comments
Oct 4, 2012 6:56PM
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...Being suspended from school for `hugging' would be a permanent `black mark' on the student's career ladder. How would they ever get a `good' job?
Oct 4, 2012 6:56PM
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Hugging is prohibited but bullying is tolerated. Typical. Hugging is a natural behavior, leave the kids alone! No PDA starts sounding more and more like the Muslims. 
Oct 4, 2012 6:56PM
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are you people kidding like we do not have an anti social soceity like never in history NOW we have educators feeding this nonsense........ If I had my way I would fire the idiots involved what an absoulte bunch of Moorans
Oct 4, 2012 6:55PM
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Okay.  I guess I can go along with not hugging during class hours, because there are those that will take it beyond casual.  At my Grandson's school they even enforce at school dances.  He says they play nothing but rap and NOBODY dances.  Some ballads and slow dancing is an interaction no youth should miss out on.  The first little kiss bye etc. teaches healthy respectful relationships, when properly chaperroned, like the old days (60's).  Of course, with adequate freedoms too.   
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The Puritans are making a come back! Next we'll have big red 'A's tattooed on our foreheads!
Oct 4, 2012 6:50PM
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And you wonder why kids are turning to technology for attention. We are teaching them to avoid personal interaction. To much more and we might as well keep our kids home. It isn't much different now. Most schools out here have the students sit in class and do their work on laptops, the same program that is used in public/state sponsored homeschools. The teachers don't even teach(they are getting paid to babysit). Now they are trying to eliminate a basic social interaction. That is cruel and isn't helping our kids.
Oct 4, 2012 6:49PM
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Oh, and I should add that schools are doing such a good job enforcing policies that they already have in place (look at bullying for example), so we just add another one?
Oct 4, 2012 6:49PM
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When I was in high school, oh...about a million years ago (the 90's), kids didn't just HUG.  They groped, fondled, grinded on each other, then innocently called it hugging.  I think it's naive to assume a simple, non-sexual hug between platonic friends is what bothers the school authorities these days.  I think it much more likely today's kids are doing exactly what we did and the overtly sexual "hugging" is the actual concern here.
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