Illinois Student Gets Detention For Hugging

[Kor37 9]

Ill. Student Gets Detention for Hugging

AP

Posted: 2007-11-06 17:57:22

MASCOUTAH, Ill. (AP) - Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter. The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.

 

"I feel it is crazy," said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.

 

"I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend," she said.

 

Megan's mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren't even real hugs - just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.

 

"It's hilarious to the point of ridicule," Coulter said. "I'm still dumbfounded that she's having to do this."

 

District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.

 

It states: "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."

 

Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

 

"We don't agree with it, but I certainly don't want her to get in more trouble," Coulter said.

 

The couple plan to attend the next school board meeting to ask board members to consider rewording the policy or be more specific in what is considered a display of affection.

 

"I'm just hoping the school board will open their eyes and just realize that maybe they shouldn't be punishing us for hugs," Megan said.

 

I'm very concerned with these people who are allegedly teaching our kids...........

[Theunicornhunter 2]

It states: "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."

 

That is so pitiful it's frightening. What kind of world are we making where humans are not supposed to show affection for one another - poor taste and poor judgment to hug a friend.

 

I understand no public displays of sex (I applaud no public sex) but banning friendship hugs - that's pathetic.

 

I'm telling you - private schools are the wave of the future.

[LordOfTheBorg 1]

wow, that is quite possibly the stupidest thing i have ever heard... if i got in trouble every time i hugged a girl.. i'd not be in school anymore. Thats so stupid!!!! I mean, what the heck.. TUH is right, no sex, yeh.. but hugs, what theh eck is the problem.. i mean, even banning kissing, yeh.. but hugging.. goodness gracious!

[Lady Britannia 0]

Sounds like an overreaction.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I don't even mind public kissing. It isn't overtly sexual. But a ban on hugging? Come on, this smacks of something Orwell would think up in one of his works of FICTION! Even I got hugs from girls in high school, and I was a dork! (Don't say it Kor, I can feel you thinking it.)

[trekz 7]

While this sounds like a zero tolerance policy gone wrong, hugging in schools, especially ones with crowded hallways, and short times between periods, can be a problem. Note this article about a suburban Chicago school.

 

Middle school bans hugs between students

October 2, 2007

 

If you need a hug, you won’t get it at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Ill.

 

Principal Victoria Sharts banned hugging among the suburban Chicago school’s 860 students anywhere inside the building. She said students were forming “hug lines” that made them late for classes and crowded the hallways.

 

“Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls,” Sharts said.

 

Another reason to institute the no-hugging policy was that some hugs could be too long and too close, she said.

 

“There is another side to the issue when a hug is either unwanted or becomes inappropriate as judged by one of the students involved,” Sharts wrote in a statement to parents.

End article ------------------------------------------

 

I have seen a small example of a hug line at the library after school. It is a ritual, with teens or preteens acting like they are seeing some long lost relative rather than someone they see regularly. It seems designed to draw attention to those hugging and to be a waste of time, in a place that should be devoted to studying. Hug in the parking lot or off the side in the lobby, not in the study area. I can absolutely see how this could become disruptive in crowded hallways. The probelm of a hug becoming more than just a hug is another whole issue, but one that could be a problem in a junior high situation with young people with raging hormones. That's my opinion. The situation in the story seems an over-reation, but I can see the potential problem of having no limits or rules in junior high or high school.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

OK, I see your point about hugging in crowded hallways since that is a safety issue, and so-called "hug lines" just seams a little weird, but that wasn't what the article was about.

[trekz 7]

OK, I see your point about hugging in crowded hallways since that is a safety issue, and so-called "hug lines" just seams a little weird, but that wasn't what the article was about.

The article was about discouraging or banning hugging in schools, however, and since everyone was pointing out how unreasonable this sounded, I just wanted to point out that hugging can be disruptive, particularly the hugging lines. The ban in Oak Park has gotten lots of local press and I think it does bring up some good points, so that's why I mentioned it, because I though it was another perspective on hugging.

[Kor37 9]

UPDATE:

Parents, School Resolve Hugging Dispute

AP

Posted: 2007-11-13 06:30:02

MASCOUTAH, Ill. (AP) - Maybe they hugged it out: school officials resolved their dispute with the parents of a 13-year-old girl given detention for hugging her friends.

 

Melissa and Dean Coulter met with officials of the Mascoutah School District 19 to discuss the two detentions given their daughter, Megan, for hugging friends goodbye for the weekend. School officials said the eighth grader violated a policy banning public displays of affection.

 

"Our whole purpose of the meeting was to get them to talk to us and discuss what changes needed to be made and if (the policy) could be improved," Dean Coulter said. "We scheduled it because we figured it was the right thing to do."

 

Her parents told her to serve the detentions to avoid getting into more trouble, and had planned to take the issue before the Board of Education at its meeting Thursday.

 

Superintendent Sam McGowen said in a statement Monday that the Coulters had withdrawn their request to speak at the meeting, and decided instead to meet with administrators.

 

"I'm grateful they sought this meeting and we could have a level of discussion that helps us both understand each other's concerns more clearly," McGowen stated.

 

He said he and Assistant Superintendent Terry Gibbons met with the Coulters on Friday and discussed the policy that led to the detentions.

 

"We told them that we reviewed it on an annual basis and that's where we left it," he said.

 

Coulter said McGowen was very receptive during the meeting, and that the family is satisfied with the district's promise to at least look into revising the policy.

 

"I just feel like we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, and that was for them to talk to us," he said.

 

 

I wonder if they ended the meeting with a nice big group hug?............

[Gummy 0]

It's just crazy.

Crazy, I tell you!

Crazy!