Hugging “Epidemic” So Out Of Control, Some Schools Are Banning It
Posted by: Blaire Briody
Filed in:
news
9:45AM, Thursday May 28th 2009
The country is up in arms over teenagers shamelessly groping each other, or, as some like to call it, “hugging.” The New York Times reported today that hugging is the new teenage greeting of choice. “The high-five is, like, boring,” says Katie Dea, an eighth grader in San Francisco. Hence, the hug.
“There is the basic friend hug, the bear hug, the bear claw, when a boy embraces a girl awkwardly with his elbows poking out. There is the hug that starts with a high-five, then moves into a fist bump, followed by a slap on the back and an embrace. There’s the shake and lean; the hug from behind; and, the newest addition, the triple — any combination of three girls and boys hugging at once. ‘We’re not afraid, we just get in and hug,’” said Danny Schneider, a junior, in The New York Times
Straight males embracing? Triple hugging? Good lord, SOMEONE HELP THESE POOR CHILDREN!!!
Parents have begun taking careful observational notes in the field. “It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,” wrote Beth J. Harpaz, a columnist and the mother of two boys, 11 and 16. “Maybe it’s because all these kids do is text and go on Facebook so they don’t even have human contact anymore,” said Dona Eichner, the mother of freshman and junior girls. Yes, blame Facebook. I suppose the violence in video games is at fault as well? And what about rap lyrics?
It’s gotten so bad, that some schools in New Jersey, Oregon, and Arizona have banned hugging. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal at a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., where hugging has been banned for two years. Other schools have imposed a three-second rule. Because after that, who knows what can happen? After Shepherd Junior High in Phoenix forbid any hugs lasting over TWO seconds, students protested with a 20-minute, public hug-a-thon and chanted: “We want hugs! We want hugs!”
I would like to point out that: (a) teachers, parents, and school administrators have much bigger things they should be worrying about than hugging. For example, fighting, guns, teenage pregnancy, and dropout rates. And (b) who thinks hugging is something new? This has been going on at least since I was in middle school and that was forever ago.
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EastCoastMale
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 09:47 am: [report]
WOW WTFC…hug it out.
writergirl
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 09:50 am: [report]
The kids in my son’s preschool class hug all the time. Not at school (at least as far as I know) but at b-day parties, play dates….when it is time to say good bye, they are giving eachother hugs. Its pretty cute. The boys even have the “guy hug” with back slaps down already.
shannac02
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 09:55 am: [report]
What is the World Coming to??? Hunger, War, and now Hugging?????? OMG.
PinkRanger
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 10:03 am: [report]
I remember getting bitched out once in highschool for hugging my boyfriend goodbye. We didn’t even kiss, because we knew the campus rent-a-cops were nearby. It was humiliating to say the least *fifteen year old girls can be easily humiliated at times*. how is hugging more obscene than handholding? seems the same to me.
misspixie
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 10:13 am: [report]
What’s wrong with hugging?! How utterly bizarre. Soon we’ll be marched around in lines and forbidden from eye contact…
Arty
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 11:42 am: [report]
Hugging is good. everyone needs more hugging. It makes people happy. This is stupid!
Ginger
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 11:59 am: [report]
I remember when I was in eighth grade, people started getting in trouble for hugging. To be fair, we had some fairly ‘active’ students in my middle school, but they never tried anything when they were hugging because, well, it was too obvious.
So a bunch of us start hugging every chance we got. And when so many of us got into trouble, our parents were called in.
When the principal told the parents why so many students were getting detention, pretty much all of them just had a general “WTF” reaction.
KellyJean
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 05:00 pm: [report]
Well, I think it only makes sense that hugging is banned. I mean, if hugging is allowed to continue in our schools, it can only lead to worse things: Well-adjusted adults, a decent support network that can last a lifetime, and… heaven forbid… more HUGS! Does it ever occur to these adults that some of these teens may have NEVER received affection growing up? Or that, perhaps, there is no safe place for them to go, no kind, caring adult at home, so they need to create that second family with friends at school? What a sad and cold life to go through without physical contact with another human being.
Then again, the article’s right. If the hugging stopped, then the school administrators would have to worry about bigger issues, like drugs, guns and violence.
wonder_bread
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 06:34 pm: [report]
i think if we as reasonible adults don’t get together and speak against this type of controling behavior we are gonna have more problems in the future. God forbid a girl gets a great hug from a guy a decide he’s “the one” and they have sex and she’s prego just becuz of a good hug. It sounds crazy but hugging is so innocent and to ban it is to send a message that being social and friendly is wrong in some way. How will they learn to set boundries for themselves if they can’t start with the basics of hugs and holding hands, who can and who can’t be that close…. its scary
Ginger
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 09:07 pm: [report]
I just realized that ‘Hugs not Drugs’ will no longer be an applicable anti-drug slogan.
That was the only one that ever seemed to work on my classmates.
EarthGoddess
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 09:22 pm: [report]
In high school we had this horribly strict and very old-school nun who lived to make our lives hell. One day a good guy friend of mine had a death in the family so I gave him a hug and told him how sorry I was for his loss. The nun walked by and gave us both detention! I explained what happened and she said it was still “inappropriate contact”. WTF? After that, I kissed my bf in the hallway as often as I could. Hell, if I’m gonna get in trouble for giving a friend a hug, I might as well get a few good kisses with my bf in too, right?
cjmar
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 10:11 pm: [report]
French people always kiss each other on the cheeks as a greeting. Oh no! They’re kissing!
sunrise
wrote on June 6 2009 @ 09:44 pm: [report]
“we need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance, and 12 for growth.”
How uptight can you get? Next thing you know, we’ll be back to putting putting skirts on piano legs so people don’t get overly “inflamed”...