Nick Gillespie | November 8, 2007
An apparently true tale of overzealous idiotic school administrators (imagine!) putting an 8th-grade girl in middle-school Gitmo for the dread act of hugging a friend:
Two hugs equals two days of detention for 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 Friday.
"I feel it is crazy," said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School [in Illinois].
"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.
"It's hilarious to the point of ridicule," Coulter said. "I'm still dumbfounded that she's having to do this."
I'd say that it's horrendous to the point of ridicule, but I'm heartened to see the girl is refusing to go gentle into that detention room, like some kind of teen John Galt (really bad headline allusion). Indeed, the girl and her mother were all over cable this morning, even pulling more camera time on Fox & Friends than Benazir Bhutto (imagine!).
I predict a minor uptick in downloads of The Wall in and around Illinois. Or at least a rash of dark sarcasm in the classroom. And am I the only who fears this will reverse years of "Hugs, not drugs" brainwashing?
Peter Bagge checks out insane school admins here.
Ron Bailey grades a dumb school's zero tolerance for silly pictures here.
A depressing look at Nanny State 911!
More reason stuff of zero tolerance.
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I predict a minor uptick in downloads of The Wall in and
around Illinois. Or at least a rash of dark sarcasm in the
classroom.
OK, that is funny. But you might need to be over 40 to think
so.
I heard mention of a waiver parents were asked to sign at the
beginning of this school year, when the policy was implemented.
That policy didn't specify hugging, and I'm sure parents thought
they were signing a No Tonsil Hockey in the Hallways policy.
That said, if my child came home and told me they'd been given
detention for hugging a classmate, I'd have been at the school in
an instant to raise hell. And my child would not be
returning.
How are our kids supposed to learn how to THINK when they're being
taught by THOUGHTLESS drones?
If Tupac was still with us I'm sure he would alter his tummy tattoo to read "Hug Life" in homage to this little hero.
Hugging is out, but can they still have sweaty pillow fights? (for more details, see page 69 of the leather-bound edition of Heather Has Two Mommies)
OK, that is funny. But you might need to be over 40 to think
so.
Thanks, dammit, couldn't just leave it as funny, have to put in the
dig about people who get it being old.
So... "Hugs Not Drugs" is no longer a DARE mantra?
I can't understand why the two girls who received the hugs didn't
get detention as well. You put both the pusher and the dope fiend
that scores in jail, right?
I hope all of this zero tolerance madness breeds a healthy
disrespect for authority. It's the only good thing elementary and
middle school did for me...
Schools are insane. Despite often horrible educational results,
I hear defenders of the public school system say that it's at least
still good for "socialization" -- for kids to mix with others of
different backgrounds, learn how to get along, not be sheltered,
socially inept misfits, blah, blah, blah.
Maybe there's something to that, although I hardly think it
outweighs the importance of actually educating the little
punks.
But here we have a girl who was behaving like a healthy,
well-adjusted, socially functional human being -- expressing
affection for her friends with a common and innocent physical
gesture. And she's punished for it.
Again, insane.
I'd like to see the kids stage a "hug-in". Every time they pass the principal in the hall, they should give all their friends big hugs and see if they school is willing to put half the student body in detention.
Seeing as public schools are a combination of "free" daycare for parents and child prisons, why does this surprise anyone?
I am a teacher (and a Libertarian - isn't the universe supposed
to collapse on itself now?) and my school has a zero-tolerance
policy on hugging, kissing, and general physical contact in the
hallways. There is one reason why I support this, and it is because
I teach at an urban charter where we have grades 6-12 all in one
building, and admin feels that 6th graders do not need to be
exposed to "tonsil hockey" in the hallways.
However, most of the touching/kissing the kids do in the hallways
is so innocent. None of the boys and girls have torrid make-out
sessions in between bells, and many of the girls give hugs and
cheek-kisses in the halls - we discourage it, but I never report
it. Hitting and violent contact is a different story. I am
definitely in the wrong as far as not reporting students who touch
in the halls, but I refuse to punish kids for displaying affection
and friendship.
Other Matt,
It's not a dig at you. It's a dig at all those wise-ass
know-nothing punks. Even so, that's some pretty good geezering on
your part (remember to wag your finger). You should start coming to
the meetings.
Too bad the girl was "Megan" and not "Ann" Coulter. Then, she
could have written a book about how the 9/11 terrorists instituted
the no-hug policy, compared the administration to Nazis, and sold
10 million copies after her first interview with Sean
Hannity.
Instead, she will have to do with a detention and moral support
from snarky H&R commenters.
Every time they pass the principal in the hall, they should
give all their friends big hugs
No, they should give the principal a big hug. Any attempt to fight
off a mob of hugging girls would almost certainly result in assault
and battery, if not the kind of "inappropriate touching" that can
get you tagged for sexual assault.
Hugging is out, but can they still have sweaty pillow
fights? (for more details, see page 69 of the leather-bound edition
of Heather Has Two Mommies)
Well they can still do blood sacrifice. Details are on page 666 of
the human flesh-bound Heathersmomicon.
MadBiker,
So you are in favor of a broad over-reaching simple-minded
regulation. The stated purpose of which is to prevent children from
showing affection. You also think this policy should be
subjectively and capriciously enforced.
I think you have a few things to learn about being a
Libertarian.
District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the
penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St.
Louis were following policy in the student handbook.
So much for the value of an an education degree. What a friggin'
idiot. I hope he get's ridiculed while grocery shopping.
Citizens of Mascoutah, look up the etymology of boycott, take it to
heart.
I think you have a few things to learn about being a
Libertarian.
You failed the litmus test, MadBiker!
To the gas chamber, go!
no, Warren, perhaps I did not state it very well. I think the
only reason why the "no touching" rule is in place and is workable
is so that 6th graders do not have to see hot and heavy make-out
sessions in school (what happens at home/on TV/in the streets is
beyond control) but to at least see people behaving with
appropriate decorum in large groups.
6th graders walk the hallways with high school kids. I am glad to
say that many of our high schoolers are mindful enough to keep
make-out sessions out of the halls. I do not write kids up for
hugging, giving cheek-kisses or friendly pats the way I am supposed
to. It's ridiculous to me and I could be reprimanded for it, but oh
well.
Warren: "OK, that is funny. But you might need to be over 40 to
think so."
I'm 18 and laughed.
Now playing: C:\Documents and Settings\Nigel Watt\My Documents\My
Music\The Wall CD1\Another Brick In The Wall (Part II).mp3
There are supposed to be backslashes in the obvious places above. Not sure what happened there.
No touching!
Just trudge with your heads down like a broken person past the
guards from one room to the next and stay at least 10 feet away
from the barbed wire fences at all times.
Don't make us taser your ass.
Do you really need a rule in place before teachers can stop kids
from making out? Why not the simple effective "Stop doing that!"
"Why?" "I'm a teacher and I said so!" It works for the bulk of
cheeky questions in regards to course material, it can work there
too.
Daniel
OK, that is funny. But you might need to be over 40 to think
so.
Thanks, dammit, couldn't just leave it as funny, have to put in the
dig about people who get it being old.
31 and I found it funny. The Wall is a perennial favorite among
teenagers with "angst".
Do you really need a rule in place before teachers can stop
kids from making out? Why not the simple effective "Stop doing
that!" "Why?" "I'm a teacher and I said so!" It works for the bulk
of cheeky questions in regards to course material, it can work
there too.
Of course we do. Present company excepted, education majors are the
botton of the barrel at any university. They can not be expected to
discern the difference between hugging and foreplay without a no
tolerance instruction that removes all discretion.
This is not a problem because the superintendant of schools
probably has a masters degree or better, and will make sure that
overreaction to the policy will not occur.
Any questions?
They didn't like it when I blew kisses to my sister when our classes passed in the hallway either, but they couldn't make me stop.
31 and I found it funny. The Wall is a perennial favorite among teenagers with "angst".
"middle-school Gitmo"
"I'd say that it's horrendous to the point of ridicule"
One problem with Reason is that often you guys are guilty of the
same hysterics and overstatements that you accuse others of.
So yes, it's kind of dumb that a school somewhere has a no-hugging
policy. But if you have any sense of perspective whatsoever you
wouldn't want to elevate it to the point of being anything more
than a very minor annoyance.
When I went to middle school in the late 60s, we didn't have
time for this. We were too busy beating the crap out of each other.
Girls, too.
"We don't need no edjucayshun . . . We don't need no thewawt
contrawl . . . "
31 and I found it funny. The Wall is a perennial favorite
among teenagers with "angst".
The classics don't die easily.
Dunno WTF with my previous post. I'm convinced it was someone
else's fault.
Hey kids! We know you're going to be sexually active, and that's
ok!
Here are some condoms and birth control pills.
But, hey, no hugging in the halls!
Dan T.,
I think teaching kids that any and all physical contact is a
punishable offense is very much more than a "minor annoyance". But
I guess it's a good time to go into psychiatry though, because
we'll need a lot of them to deal with all the additional social
misfits this will generate.
Is this one of those schools handing out rubbers and oral contraceptives? Cuz that would be totally weird, you know. "Hey, kids, have fun fucking, but ABSOLUTELY NO HUGGING ON SCHOOL GROUNDS WILL BE TOLERATED. Get to fuckin', now!"
Good one, de stijl. They should all be issued wire
friends.
Or maybe a weighted companion cube.
Dan T.,
I think teaching kids that any and all physical contact is a
punishable offense is very much more than a "minor annoyance". But
I guess it's a good time to go into psychiatry though, because
we'll need a lot of them to deal with all the additional social
misfits this will generate.
I'd agree with you if there were thousands of good little
middle-class kids being severely punished daily for such crimes as
hugging.
But I think that H&R is really bad about taking isolated
incidents and then doing a chicken-little routine. I suspect Meagan
Coulter will survive her ordeal with minimal psychological
scars.
MadBiker,
While I'm not sure it necessarily contradicts libertarianism per
se, I don't know if you got Warren's point that you seem to be
advocating a hard-line policy balanced by discretionary
enforcement. Couldn't the rule be more limited to stating no
kissing and sexual contact rather than broadly banning all
touching? It doesn't seem to me that that would be difficult to
understand or enforce. Am I wrong?
That said, I commend you for not enforcing a rule in situations
where it's being broken in letter but not in spirit.
A blog post counts as a "chicken-little routine," Dan T.?
So, is what you do here (namely, post asinine crap in a churlish
attempt to piss people off) the work of a slavering douchebag bent
on world domination? I mean, as long as you're making shit up. I
want to play too.
Are you really incapable of thinking that this sort of attitude
among school administrators is unnecessary at best, and downright
malicious when it results in punishment for a child who has done no
wrong to anyone?
Do you hate children, Dan T.?
Maybe Dan T. is right. Actually, this could be a good lesson to Megan about how "crazy" the adult world actually is. Especially with people like Dan T. in it!!
Jim Bob, that should be "Why do you hate children." That way there is no correct response. I learned it from the Nanny Staters. Know your enemy and learn from them.
"Two hugs equals two days of detention for 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 Friday."
FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP
A stupid policy at its core.
Same as elementary school rules against playing tag.
The solution is to get involved in your local school up front and
work with administration to revise idiotic policies.
All education problems and all education successes are local.
"The girl and her mother were all over cable this morning, even
pulling more camera time on Fox & Friends than Benazir Bhutto
(imagine!)."
Gee, I wonder why everyone will be shocked when radical Islamists
take over Pakistan and hand its nukes over to al-Qaeda?
Are you really incapable of thinking that this sort of
attitude among school administrators is unnecessary at best, and
downright malicious when it results in punishment for a child who
has done no wrong to anyone?
I already agreed that the policy was kind of dumb.
Hate Pink Floyd, always have, but The Wall brings back fond (in
an annoying way) of our supercool high school English teacher, a
failed wannabe rock star who kept his hair way too long for way too
long, had a 70s mustache (ok, I graduated in 82, so we'll give him
that), rode a motorcycle and generally tried real hard to emphasize
how cool he was in spite of being an English teacher - smoked pot,
had a bad, insisted we call him by his first name, etc. His bad was
hired to play at one of our dances one year. He was the lead
singer. He wore face paint - full face paint, a la Ace Frehly - did
KISS remove the makeup in the early 80s? Don't remember. Anyway,
one of the songs they did was the Wall. English teacher singing "we
don't need no education" - real subversive, real edgy. Parents
thought he was an idiot. Students thought he was kind of pitiful.
Don't know what he thought.
He did allow us to drink alcohol on school grounds while putting
out the monthly school newspaper, though, and he got us excused
from classes all day while we did it, so, good for ol' Pete. The
smell of sloe gin takes me back to the Tshacks.
Sorry to beat the proverbial dead horse,
But it surprises me that the so-called secular public schools are
becoming the seat of this kind of puritan regulating. At least in
the Catholic schools of my youth they had the excuse of "Leave room
for the Holy Ghost".
I guess in retrospect I'm not surprised at all. The Progressives
always had a stick up their asses (William Jennings Bryan, Ignatius
Donelly, et al.)
It's just more zero-tolerance bullshit. All drugs or druglike substnces are banned because administrators don't want to take the trouble to discern between heroin and Advil, and all physical contact is banned because they don't want to trouble themselves with the difference between a friendly hug and making the beast with two backs.
Hey, if the kids don't like the policy, they're always free to
move to another schoo...
Oh, fuck.
The schools pull this shit purely because they are afraid of lawsuits. Asshole parents are the underlying problem, thinking of course that *their* precious little darling would never do anything wrong, and so somebody needs to be sued!
I suspect Meagan Coulter will survive her ordeal with
minimal psychological scars.
And a healthy distrust of bullshit "authority" figures.
Also, the point of this post is to generate scorn so that "isolated
incidents" like this don't become standard operating procedure in
the future.
Hey! Mascoutah isn't that far from where I live.
An apparently true tale of overzealous idiotic school
administrators
Yes, there are certain teachers who would hurt the children any way
they could. (But in the town, it is well-known that when they get
home at night their fat and psychopathic wives will thrash them
within inches of their lives.)
And why does Dan T. hate children? Rechanneled anger and
resentment, that's why. He wants today's kids to suffer myriad
little injustices because he was subjected to such when he was a
student.
For example, the meat served in the school cafeteria was often
gristly and inedible, but if Dan T. didn't eat it, he wasn't
allowed to have any pudding.
Stevo, I confess that they poured their derision on everything we did, etc. etc.
All education problems and all education successes are
local.
That's why we need a department of education in Washington! Oh
yeah, maybe we don't.
SOP at the Harry Harlow School For Tots.
Actually, isn't the ultimate irony here is that this school sounds
like Ayn Rand's
School for Tots ?
LOL, Dan T.! For that, I will refrain from speaking disparagingly of your comments for at least the next couple of days.
fyodor, point taken. From the POV of someone who works in the
school I can see that what they are trying to do is limit chaos and
potential violence or harassment in the hallways. But the term
"zero-tolerance" makes my skin itch.
We need room for interpretation, always, but administrators fear
the "give an inch, take a mile" phenomenon is going to cause
breakdown in the disciplinary structure.
I had an interesting discussion with my Journalism class today
about the requirements to be POTUS. One girl wants to be POTUS one
day but was born in the Dom Republic and can never be...she was
fired up. The class started asking about why America is called a
land of opportunity if someone's greatest dreams cannot be
fulfilled because of the law about natural-born citizenship. We
started to discuss other laws and the reasons behind them. I was
surprised, my kids are pretty savvy when it comes to understanding
their rights and responsibilities, and how to go about questioning
and changing policy. I did not bring up the "no touching" rule at
our school (there was a HUGE fight yesterday that led to 3 students
being arrested and one sent to the ER, so its a bit touchy issue
right now), but I wonder how their opinions might be affected or
not based on the outcome of the fight.
Actually, isn't the ultimate irony here is that this school
sounds like Ayn Rand's School for Tots ?
Kolohe,
You caught me. I was feeling greedy so I went for the two-fer. The
downside is that I've had the theme from the Great Escape stuck in
my head all day long now.
First, I am a teacher. Second it's two days of detention not two
days of Suspension. They are not water bording the poor girl.
Think about this,
Two days of detention for gum chewing. Okay or not?
Two days of detention for not doing homework?
Two days of detention for mouthing off?
Two days of detention for kissing?
Two days of detention for playing grab ass?
Two days for talking out of turn?
Two days for sharpening a pencil?
Each of these are things that I've given detention for, in each
case the punishment may seem be a bit harsh, and to be honest
sometime the punishment was disproportionate.
Chances are this girl was warned numerous times and based upon the
fact that the parents are willing to make a federal case of it, she
is probably a complete brat. Think about it, your girl gets caught
hugging, your girl gets detention what do YOU do? If you're a
decent parent you tell your kid that life isn't fair, suck it up
and go to detention.
As a teacher do I think schools have a lot of stupid rules, you
bet. But I can tell you that the problem is you need to have rules
that are easy to enforce.
Thus a rule against making out gets downgraded to to no kissing
because making out is too open to interpretation. No kissing gets
downgraded to no hugging because the kids are doing heavy petting
but not kissing.
Do I feel sorry for the kids. Sometimes. Our school has a No
permanent marker rule. A student of mine who is a fabulous artist
had a very nice set of pens taken by an idiot administrator because
they were permanent. Forget that they were used exclusively in an
art class. Why does the school have such a rule. Because STUDENTS
shit where they eat. They continuely tag. Thus, a rule against
tagging was insufficient and we had to go nuclear.
I suspect that if students weren't dry humping in the hall, such a
rule would have never been implemented.
Regards
Joe Dokes
Chances are this girl was warned numerous times and based
upon the fact that the parents are willing to make a federal case
of it, she is probably a complete brat. Think about it, your girl
gets caught hugging, your girl gets detention what do YOU do? If
you're a decent parent you tell your kid that life isn't fair, suck
it up and go to detention.
Standing up against unjust rules makes one a brat?
Shorter Joe Dokes: "People should just shut the fuck up and do what
we say. The point of school is to force you to succumb to authority
and not question stupid arbitrary nonsense."
When I was in HS, a jackass teacher like yourself, tried to make me
go to detention.
He didn't require homework to be turned in, but because he didn't
like me and my lax attitude about doing homework, he threatened me
with detention if *I* didn't have my homework. The next day he
checked only my homework, which I didn't do. When he told me to
come in for detention, I explained that unless he was planning on
checking every other students' homework he should not expect me to
show up for detention. He didn't check, and I didn't show. It was
unfair the he singled me out, and I didn't stand for it.
Fuck you Joe Dokes and your ilk who demand others suck it up and
deal with tyranny and unfairness because "life is unfair". The
world would be a much better place if more people took a stand for
what is right instead of the cowards way to just go along to get
along.
I suspect that if students weren't dry humping in the hall,
such a rule would have never been implemented.
I suspect the real issue is that most teachers are too stupid to be
allowed the ability to distinguish between dry humping and friendly
hugs.
I don't think I've ever agreed with ChicagoTom before, but I do
now. Why on earth can't the schools just discipline the dry humpers
and ignore the huggers? Do the dry humpers try to say they were
only hugging? Can the school not say bullshit, you were dryhumping?
I mean, some kids tags so NO kids are allowed permanent marker?
That's not about making rules easy to enforce - that's about making
things easier for the teachers - it's too much trouble to actually
think about what the students are doing, and to use your judgment -
so much easier to just say okay, no permanent markers, no hugging,
and Advil in your backpack will get you sent home same as
prescription narcotics. Because ChicagoTom is right - it's all
about the imposition of authority without the responsibility of how
that authority is used.
Our city's largest public school district just got a huge ass bond
issue passed in a squeaker of an election. And the school district
is talking about making parents feel more like partners, getting
the community involved, blah blah blah, cause apparently they were
taken aback at the vehement and widespread opposition to giving
them any more money. Tough shit. This is a perfect example of why
the public education system oh hell never mind. Just cue my Public
Education Rant No. 36. I'm going to pick up the kid from (private)
school.
Joe Dokes,
Did you not learn any critical thinking skills in college?
Oh, and
Fuck you Joe Dokes and your ilk who demand others suck it up and deal with tyranny and unfairness because "life is unfair". The world would be a much better place if more people took a stand for what is right instead of the cowards way to just go along to get along.
Um, there is a clear cut difference between dry humping and
simple hugging. In dry humping there is motion involving certain
parts of the body that wouldn't be involved in simple hugging. So
why not just ban dry humping and allow simple hugging? come on. Use
your noggins.
and, yes, dumb rules should be protested.
schools are going overboard. They don't have to. They do it because they are too easily into slippery-sloping every little molehill and turning it into a mountain, and thus a rule against something like gangfights becomes a rule against wearing gang symbols - which turns into a rule against wearing belt buckles or some such thing on the grounds that it can constitute a gang symbol... and so on and so forth, until everyone's coming to school in uniforms that make you look like Bob the Delivery Man. The point of a school is education, not crapping people out with silly rules. Establish the sort of rules expected in workplaces in the adult world, and try not to go much further than that. Otherwise, you'll be like that school that broke the taboo against rules banning hugging...
Joe Dokes,
I used to be a teacher, too. And your attitude that people should
follow arbitrary, foolish rules because "life is unfair" (a common
attitude among career public school teachers, who often look at
their professional lives as one, long power struggle) is one of the
reasons I homeschool my son.
I just wanted to let you know that I am a mom in this school dist. My son is a good friend of Megan and I of her mom, the 8th graders all sent texts saying they were all going to hug each other in the hallway before homeroom on Wednesday. They were all so exicted to show support, (or just to be smarta$$ who knows LOL) my child asked if I cared that he do this and I said no, but if you get detention you will have to serve it, I can't get you out of it. So the plan was set....on hitch, the all walk out of their classes before homeroom and the administration and teachers ALL stand in the 8th grade hall watching them. Sombody told!! Poor kids were so upset!! But at least they tried. They were all to chicken I guess with all the teachers watching!
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