No hugs allowed at Ill. middle school

Tue Oct 2, 7:33 AM ET

OAK PARK, Ill. - If you need a hug, you won't get it at Percy Julian Middle School. 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. "On occasion, we do deal with those incidents. The goal is always to promote safe and orderly hallways where everybody can get by, be safe, and be on time."

Associated Press

Yikes. What a scary thought... schools with rules against hugging. Grandpa has cancer? Boyfriend broke up with you? Mom beat you again? Dad's drinking again? Suck it up and get to class.

Seems Canada has the same idea ... One blog from 2006...

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yeah, pretty much anytime a stupid idea grabs a foot hold in modern society, it's everywhere. It's sad and sickening. I think our children deserve more than this sort of ridiculousness.

Of course they do, they deserve a hug.

7 hugs a day is what most of my friends call the minimum for good mental health. If they don't get a few from their friends at school, boy that puts a lot of extra pressure on me!

And someone deserves a slap... no hugs,WTF.

Dang, wish I got 7 hugs a day.

I'm guaranteed 4 hugs a day, just for popping over to my friends' house for coffee or drinks. Everyone hugs walking in, everyone hugs walking out.

slow news day....?

what makes you ask if it's a slow news day? You don't think people making stupid policies that the children of our society have to live with, is news?

Still a hell of a lot better than discussing dreary old wars, conspiracies and senseless murders.

Hugs are a way that anyone can make a small or big difference to someones day. I like hugs...kids like hugs. My mom gets hugged by her students a lot, though she admittedly feels nervous about that in this day and age. She teaches kindergarten for crying out loud!

There's a reason my sig is what it is. lol.
my son used to leave kindergarten the same way, every day, giving his teacher a great big bum hug. lol. He'd hug any woman who looked his way. He's a bit more reserved now, but he still loves hugging.

In just a few seconds you can convey more emotion and caring than in an hour of lecturing.

exactly Unf.

No friends should have to try to go it in an environment where they can't hug to end a stupid fight, or mend a broken heart.

It's just more stripping away of the last vestiges of humanity within our school systems.

it sounds like one of these playground rituals sprung up here, though, these hug-lines spoken of... it sounds strange but could be good... although the reasons they cite for banning are partly that they delay classes. Perhaps they just banned the hug-lines? and perhaps they wouldn't care too much as long as it didn't interfere with classes... you know what journalism is like... quite possibly this story is a lot less than it seems

I don't know, her quotes seemed to back up what the article was saying.

What I don't get is this....

There's already a rule that students need to be in class on time. There are rules in most schools about not loitering in the halls. Rules about respecting personal space. Why on earth do schools need to make new rules banning every thing that might make the rules be broken, rather than educating their students as to the true implications of the initial rules?

Isn't that a part of what our kids are at these schools to learn?

good point, karrie.

Karrie, may I have a hug please?

I second Hermann's good point Karrie, damn good point.

I agree. A very good point.

(((Huuuugggzzzzz)))

Sweet! Thank you. I can now say that today is a good day.

Same here...

It's unfortunate. Some kids could really use a hug on occassion.
I worked for a school board several years ago, and even then, we weren't allowed to hug the students. It was for our own protection as well as theirs. No hugs, means no one can claim that they were touched inappropriately.

So, has anyone kept score?

No hugs.
No midriff baring shirts.
No shirts with certain bands/logos/
No miniskirts.
No religious symbols.
No hats.

Looks like: schools 6, children's freedom of expression 0.

Also, hugs all around. Hugs are an awesome greeting.

add no music to that I believe.

How are kids supposed to express themselves exactly? By choosing essay theme 2 over 1 and 3? Oversimplified attack, I know, but still. Oh yeah, didn't some schools ban baggy pants too?

Herm...good to see yer thinkin...

Our societies have been manipulated into wars over oil. If our economies weren't based on the intersts of a handful of multi-trillion, multi-national conglomerates that generate the atmospheric gases that will kill everything on this planet....

If the "economy" of a teachers time....if the efficiency of building and plant use.....are measured in moments lost to something like giving someone a hug....for pretense or otherwise....doesn't this notion of "freedom" we're all being told is so important that our young folk have to die in Afghanistan and hundreds and perhaps millions of people suffer to satisfy the appetites of the western consumer cultures....really mean.....

Freedom to see the world not as a place where living beings rely on the whole of everything to exist, but where a few who regard the world as a resource awaiting their development...bounded by the metrics of personal wealth and power....as opposed to the kind of "freedom" they're talking about behind police cordons and barbwire topped chainlink fences at global/international economic gatherings conferences and summits?

Have a hug and get a hug because you've already lost some of the most precious freedoms any human being of any time throughout the human sojourn could possibly imagine.

Yeah,being led around by the headline....why not...