Can We Get Any Crazier?

[Jade Tigress]

Where the hell has common sense gone?

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 Frida
"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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_fe_st/odd_detention_for_hugging_2

 

[tellner]

Get used to it. The national security state coupled with the surveillance state and "zero tolerance" speak, and you had better obey. Or were you under the quaint delusion that you still had rights?

 

[Andrew Green]

And so she should! Children hugging at 13, what's this world coming too?

They need to practice self-recstraint, hugging is a gateway act to kissing and other exchanges of bodily fluids. Let her hug at 13 and she will be pregnant with a half dozen STD's by 14.

We need to immediately start spending billions of dollars in a international no hugging until marriage program, teach kids the danger of showing affection before they are sworn for life to a single partner

We can even start a friendship bracelets for Halo 3 exchange program, get them doing something wholesome like simulated violence alone in there basement rather then this godless liberal commie hippy hugging holding hands and singing folk songs crap!

 

[exile]

What a bunch of flaming, gaping morons. In her parents' place I'd show up in the principal's office with two lawyers and three reporters from the local paper(s) and tell that worthy official that I was going to eviscerate him or her in the courts and in the press if s/he didn't rescind the punishment immediately and offer a big, fat public apology as well. No apology, no deal. And no negotiation on the point. And I'd do it!

School principals often correspond to the `management' side, pushing the line coming down from school board educrats. Working teachers, the ones who actually serve on the front lines, have more important things to worry about. They do the best they can with limited resources and, very often, inadequate infrastructure (in spite of which they're expected to work miracles). But a lot of times their own heads are on the block if they don't enforce the dopier aspects of school policy. And their bosses are playing cover-your-*** 24/7.

And then these characters wonder why people, when they grow up, have such hostility towards the edustablishment...

 

[MBuzzy]

"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."

Discredit to the persons involved?!?? My god....So I should be embarrassed to kiss my wife unless we're in our house with all the curtains shut?? This is insane.

Poor Judgement??? WHY? Who came up with this?

I mean...I can see the intent, that is obvious. If I was a school administrator I wouldn't want teenagers making out in the halls of the school, but there is a line, and the teachers enforcing this need to use serious judgement and not hide under the excuse of "We have to be fair to everyone"

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Maybe just throw the word "sexual" into the description of no-noes? We forbid public displays of sexual affection, instead of just any affection at all?

But yes, it's quite ridiculous to be punishing a middle-schooler for hugging a friend. Suddenly makes all those Character Counts-ish programs seem quite disingenuous.

 

[DArnold]

Where the hell has common sense gone?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_fe_st/odd_detention_for_hugging_2

Hey Jade, Great post. My brother sent me this today.

Here is the email address of the superintendent:

[email protected]

I would suggest everyone send emails telling him what a moron he is.
I sent this to him:

Wow, you’re getting publicity all over the U.S.
By following the letter of your law you may feel, as in your own words, “It will keep discredit from the school”
However, on the other end of the coin you look like a horses A$$ for not having any common sense!
Douglas Arnold

 

[stone_dragone]

Whilst I agree this is a flagrant disregard for the basest levels of common sense, I'm not so sure that folks who are not in or near the jurisdiction of the said superintendent should flood the dumb-*** with emails. There is a fine line in letting your opinion be made known and harassing...I'm not saying don't, but if it's that important one might think of getting a physical address and mailing a hard copy letter to him.

Emails can be ignored, but a pile of business sized envelopes in your mailbox saying the same thing..."you are a flaming moron..." keep better accountability. Just a thought.

 

[Jade Tigress]

I mean...I can see the intent, that is obvious. If I was a school administrator I wouldn't want teenagers making out in the halls of the school, but there is a line, and the teachers enforcing this need to use serious judgement and not hide under the excuse of "We have to be fair to everyone"

That's what I'm talking about! Common sense folks, common sense. Seems like it's gone the way of the wind. I agree with all the above sentiments, and like exile, if that were my child I'd in the principals office pretty damn fast.

 

[MBuzzy]

if that were my child I'd in the principals office pretty damn fast.

Of definately...I don't think that going to the School Board meeting to ask them about rewording it would cut it for me....

 

[terryl965]

"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."

Discredit to the persons involved?!?? My god....So I should be embarrassed to kiss my wife unless we're in our house with all the curtains shut?? This is insane.

Poor Judgement??? WHY? Who came up with this?

I mean...I can see the intent, that is obvious. If I was a school administrator I wouldn't want teenagers making out in the halls of the school, but there is a line, and the teachers enforcing this need to use serious judgement and not hide under the excuse of "We have to be fair to everyone"

I agree with you, Man I just want to go hug my child right out in front od that school.

 

[morph4me]

That's what I'm talking about! Common sense folks, common sense. Seems like it's gone the way of the wind. I agree with all the above sentiments, and like exile, if that were my child I'd in the principals office pretty damn fast.

Common sense is a misnomer, it isn't all that common.

 

[Lisa]

My daughter and her friends hug all the time. OMG! They hug boys too! I guess I should put a stop to that, lord knows what it could lead too.

 

[MJS]

Gee, if someone gets a detention for a simple hug, I hate to think what would happen if you did something on a larger scale.

Personally, I think its crazy. RandomPhantom brought up a good point. Perhaps changing some wording would be a better route to take. IMO, giving someone a friendly hug, which I don't think is that high on the list of sexual things to do, is wrong. How many of us have given someone a hug who just lost a family member? I know I have. Doesn't mean that I am having sexual thoughts about them though.

 

[morph4me]

The ban is on public displays of affection, if these kids had the common decency to keep their displays of affection out of the public eye, like in the women's room or in the janitors closet or under the stairwell or somewhere they couldn't be seen like the teachers do, there would be no problems.

 

[exile]

...if that were my child I'd in the principals office pretty damn fast.

I don't think that going to the School Board meeting to ask them about rewording it would cut it for me....

See, that's what I find so frustrating about this story: the passivity of the parents. Look at the thrust of their comments: we don't want to protest too much because they might take it out on our kid.... as though it were the school apparatchiks' right to bully them and their child as much as they liked and you have to sit quietly and take it..., like villagers in Myamar sitting huddled in a corner while government troops rifle around in their house taking whatever they feel like. Do these people not understand that if you live as though you were in a facist state... you already are in a facist state? There are dozens of legal piranhas out there who would take a case like this on on a pro bono basis, with a very good shot at getting the eduratchiks to back down. All sitting meekly in the corner does is encourage them to make more stupid rules like this one....

 

[shesulsa]

This is a classic case of enforcing the "letter of the law" rather than the spirit of the "law." I cannot imagine that an open gesture of kinship can equal a public display of tonsil-hockey and if an adult can't tell the difference said adult should not be in the office of enforcement of said rule.

But I have a feeling Cryo will be coming along very shortly to say, "It's Illinois - what do you expect?"

Note to self: Boycott Illinois.

 

[tellner]

This is not about making sense. It's about obedience to authority no matter how ridiculous.

 

[Blotan Hunka]

Yall know that Im a "law and order" type guy, but this is crazy. What in the hell are these people thinking??

 

[shesulsa]

This is not about making sense. It's about obedience to authority no matter how ridiculous.

Agreed.