Rules over reason

Four middle school students were called down to the principal’s office last week. It wasn’t for cheating on a math quiz or sneaking into the staff washroom and spray-painting “school sucks” on the wall. Their crime is of a different sort.

These 12- and 13-year-old girls like to hug and that, it seems, goes against school policy. Their Brampton elementary school has a general no touching rule, spelled out as “no loving, no shoving.”

Setting aside the ridiculous notion that affection is somehow on a par with violence, that rule, say the girls, has repeatedly landed them in hot water for hugging each other. Now, they’re pushing back by organizing a “hug-in” protest at the school.

It’s fairly easy to see how a group of caring educators and school officials, having started out with the very best of intentions, could wind up in this mess. They want to protect students from unwanted touching and discourage boys and girls from making out in the hallways. That’s understandable and rules designed to discourage touching are fairly common in schools.

But when the rule becomes a de facto hug ban, things have gone too far. Blanket policies like these are an attempt to displace the need for common sense, on the part of both students and educators. They seemingly make life easier for teachers and school officials who can simply point to a rule instead of judging a particular behaviour on its merits. None of this creates a constructive environment for students.

To see how ridiculous this can get, we need only look south of the border. Some American schools have tried to tackle the pesky “epidemic” of hugging with ever more specific rules. Some have put time limits on hugs while one went so far as to ban high-fives. What fun it must be to play on that school’s volleyball team.

As any parent knows, just about the worst possible way to get kids to alter their behaviour is to throw an obviously ridiculous rule at them. That almost begs for a reaction like the hug-in protest, which has made this school a laughing stock on the web.

Discouraging all touching in the hopes of eliminating harassment or excessive displays of teen hormones simply casts too wide a net. No loving, no shoving, is one school policy badly in need of an update.

The worst way to get kids to alter their behaviour is to throw an obviously ridiculous rule at them