At many schools in Oak Park and elsewhere, there are some things that just aren’t allowed, such as fighting and bullying.
But hugging?
At Julian Middle School, 416 S. Ridgeland, Principal Victoria Sharts recently sent out a notice to teachers about just that: Stop students from hugging.
Sharts explained last week that the main issue is kids mingling and hugging between class periods because it sometimes gets out of hand-and it definitely gets in the way.
On any given day, Sharts said as many as 10 or 12 kids will start hugging each other between periods, clogging the hallways and preventing themselves and other kids not involved in the “hug-fest” from getting to class.
“Kids carry it to the extreme,” said Sharts, explaining that there’s also a concern with boys and girls hugging each other.
“It depends on who’s hugging. Girl to girl may be seen as OK, but boys hugging girls might not. What we’ve seen is it gets out of control. It’s not like they’re coming home from the airport, and they’ve haven’t seen each other in years.”
But before Oak Parkers start flooding this paper with letters about the issue, pro or con, Sharts’ concern is not unprecedented.
In fact, a middle school in Iowa City, Iowa last December also banned hugging for the exact same reason.
Deb Wretman, principal of Southeast Junior High School, a middle school in the Iowa City Community School District, instituted a “hands off” policy, which included handshakes.
In a local news report from December 2006, Wretman explained that the policy was about getting kids to move through the halls during passing time safely and efficiently.
The local news there reported that one student wrote a letter to a newspaper in outrage over the policy.
Meanwhile, Kilmer Middle School in the Fairfax County, Va. school district, has gone so far as to ban all physical contact between students, including handshakes, hand-holding and high-fives. Local news media there quoted school officials saying that the rule was put in place to keep hallways and lunchrooms “safe and orderly.”
Some no doubt will say hugging shouldn’t top the list of things schools are concerned about, but Sharts noted that creating a comfortable school environment for all kids is always the intent of such policies.
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com