No Hugs Allowed

Here is my latest entry on a list of "Things That Make You Go, 'Hmm'":

An article in yesterday's New York Times discussed a new trend among teens to, get this: hug each other. Apparently a lot.

So often, in fact, that schools across the nation have started banning the action. Banning hugs. (Full article here.)

Upon Googling to find you the link to the NYT story, I learned that this isn't really such a new phenomenon. Here's a Time article from November 2007 that reports that an eighth-grader served two detentions in a week for hugging her friends.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds completely ridiculous? They're hugging, not shooting each other up with drugs. Certainly this world (especially middle schools and high schools) could use a little more love and a lot less hate, right? What's the harm in hugging?

Remember this guy? He offered free hugs to people on the street and turned himself into a YouTube sensation. His "hugs campaign" sparked many other people to do the same, all around the world. Hugs are good, not evil.

School administrators claim that it's difficult to draw a line between appropriate and inappropriate hugging, so it's easier to place a ban on hugging altogether. Really? I look back at my high school days, and although we didn't use hugging in the same way (or as often) as it seems teens do now, it wasn't hard to see when innocent, platonic, friendly hugging turned into all-out groping (or heaven forbid, making out *shudder*). It seems to me that should the sexually charged touching happen, it would be pretty easy to pick out among the rest in order to tell the two lovebirds to knock it off, no?

Not only that, but my god... how much time and effort must they put forth into enforcing these stupid bans on hugs? One of the articles says that some schools have placed time limits on hugging. Anything over three seconds is unacceptable. Whaaaat? Again, I say... really? So, if two students hug in the hallway, is there are a teacher or administrator standing over them with a stopwatch?

I. just. don't. get. it.

Now, I'm not a teacher or an administrator, but I can only imagine that these people have much more important things to worry about. Like, say, THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN, for one. If I was a teacher, and I was told by my administration that I had to give detention to students for hugging in the hallway in between classes, well... I think I'd be pissed.

As far as I'm concerned... hug on, kids. HUG ON.