“Hernandez said the no-touching rule is meant to ensure that students are comfortable and that crowded hallways and lunchrooms stay safe. She said school officials are allowed to use their judgment in enforcing the rule. Typically, only repeat offenders are reprimanded.”
The article mentions overcrowding at the school (1100 students, school meant to house 850 students) and among other things, mentions gang signs, ‘pokes’ leading to fights, and girls who are uncomfortable about being hugged but embarrassed to say anything.
Baltimore County public schools have a similar no-touching policy. I’m sure it’s to keep kids safe, but it strikes me as ridiculous. I’ve known kids to get detention for hugging or hand-holding in the halls.
Please note this insanity is from Northern Virginia, the same DC suburb area that brought the innovation of making the team that’s winning in soccer play with fewer players. The rest of Virginia is fairly sane.
I’d like to suggest this as a prototype for a schoolroom with this rule.
(It’s a church in Port Arthur, Tasmania, designed for convicts in solitary confinement. Each convict could enter his own pew, from which he could see and hear the minister, but could not see – and could certainly not touch – the other convicts. Of course, solitary confinement like this sent many of the convicts insane: about as insane, I suggest, the administrators are who have set up this no-touching rule.)
Count me in the camp which says that I’m sure there has been a lot of problematic touching in the past, but this is an over-reaction. People need human contact. Part of that is touching other people. Focus on elimating or reducing the problematic touches, not on eliminating ordinary everyday contact betweeen people.
Wonderful. I don’t live far from that at all, and it just scares me that this sort of miopic worldview even exists, muchless in this area.
How does this protect kids? If they’re worried about gang signs, they don’t need to touch to show one. If they’re worried about fights, maybe they should, I don’t know, ban fighting. If they’re worried about girls being touched inappropriately and not feeling safe enough to tell someone, maybe they need to be addressing that issue rather than enabling their continued inability to stand up for themselves.
You can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. This sort of policy will only serve to raise paranoid, self-conscious children. How is a “high-five” in ANYWAY a bad thing? How is a hug with one’s girlfriend a bad thing? I understand banning fighting and inappropriate touching and gang signs in school… why can’t they just stick with that?
God save us from the uber-nannies. I went to Catholic high school (run by nuns and everything) and they only banned inappropriate touching. The standards for “inappropriate” were kinda vague, but as long as your hands were above waist-level you were usually OK.
I admit, it sounds nuts, but it may be that it’s the situation at the school that made such a policy seem necessary that’s nuts.
This
suggests that the school authorities may have reached the point of the exasperated parent who has to shout at the kids in the back seat, “Okay, no more touching! At all!”
As a teacher in an elementary school, I think it’s depressing, but I have heard “but I was only playing…” so many times as an excuse before a fight started that it gets quite frustrating. I taught last year in a 5th grade that had 13 and 14 year olds in it. I can understand the reaction of the administration.
However, I do believe that human contact is necessary and I don’t reject hugs or positive contact when teaching. I think this is basically a “head 'em off at the pass” type of measure. I mean, if you’ve ever worked in this type of school, some students will use every excuse in the book to justify the innappropriate touching or hit or whatever. If there is a zero tolerance, then it takes away that excuse.
We have a hands off policy in our division. Generally this means anything that can be construed as negative contact is very off limits. We try to keep contact within the range of high fives, hugs when neccessary. In today’s society, people are VERY quick to blame teachers for any stupid act their child may engage in. So hence admin are quick to do anything to cover their asses…whos to blame? Teachers? Admin? Students? Parents?
My personal preference right now is parents Not always, but I’ve seen some bad parenting in my first year as a teacher. Frivolous attacks make schools cover their asses more.
Not always, but I’ve seen some bad parenting in my first year as a teacher. Frivolous attacks make schools cover their asses more.