The New York Times reports on a supposed trend of hugging among high school students. A thin story, but it's always amusing to read the cameo appearances by administrators determined to produce another generation of fearful, sexually repressed Americans:
Comforting as the hug may be, principals across the country have clamped down. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School, a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., who banned hugging two years ago. “It was needless hugging — they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.”
Schools
that have limited hugging invoked longstanding rules against public
displays of affection, meant to maintain an atmosphere of academic
seriousness and prevent unwanted touching, or even groping.
