Sam McGowen, District Superintendent of Mascoutah Community schools, together with the administration of Mascoutah Middle School. On Friday last, they assigned a thirteen-year-old girl two days’ detention for a public display of affection — which was in truth merely the girl giving two friends brief hugs.
“I feel it is crazy,” said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.
“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.
McGowen defended the “disciplinary” action, citing a very poorly worded passage from the student handbook.
On the girl’s part her parents suggested going along with the detention since school policy is a day’s suspension for each day of detention missed, and they quite logically didn’t want things to snowball. They plan to attend the next school board meeting, whereat I sincerely hope they will raise every kind of hell available to them.
For teaching children that hugging friends is A Very Bad Thing To Do, McGowen et. al. have certainly earned their Soylies. Next time you wonder what the hell is wrong with the kids today, remember that they’re not even supposed to have affectionate contact with people whom they like. At least, not in public.
6:22 on November 10th, 2007
So I guess all of those “Hugs Not Drugs” posters will have to come down, huh?
(Btw, this isn’t the first suspension over hugs to make the national news…*sigh*)
-ttc aka bryce
6:28 on November 10th, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
brings a tear to my eye…
14:52 on November 10th, 2007
Yeah, I’ve seen that one. It’s actually a little depressing in some ways, but it’s a damned good lesson too.
And yes, it’s ironic about the “Hugs” propaganda materials being undermined by the policies of the very people who seemed to think the posters were such a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that at all, but the hypocrisy is obvious now that you point it out.
In the “Related Stories” sidebar on the MSNBC piece a couple other similar incidents got a mention as well, but it was only after Megan Coulter’s story broke. An afterthought, if you will.
I thought this headline was particularly ironic given the phonetic pronunciation of the school’s name:
Which Buddha would that be? Avaloketishhugmenot? Amitawaituntilmarriage? The Buddha of Infinite Compassionate Air-Kisses?
And so much of this stems from anxiety about kids and Teh Seks. As though forbidding hugging, along with chastity vows, will keep teenagers from doing what teenagers have been doing together for at least 160,000 years.
What kind of damage is being done to kids in the name of protecting them from something that, hey guess what, they’re going to do anyhow, and isn’t actually all that dangerous if they’re knowledgeable about safety and consent issues? How sick do we have to be to tell kids that hugging is punishable by detention or suspension?
(And in case this seems hypocritical of me in light of my criticism of Naked Brothers Band, I should point out that my objection to that show was simply that it put children into the role of being the adults; they were the Wise Ones in the narrative while the grown-ups were all bumbling ninnies.
(CN pissed me off a little while ago by running a music bump that had lyrics such as, “school was invented to keep kids under control”. That kind of pandering, I think, doesn’t really make parents’ lives easier. The relationships can already be adversarial enough without kids being told outright that their parents are just out to ruin their plans for having a good time all their lives.)
15:37 on November 10th, 2007
[Warren]CN pissed me off a little while ago by running a music bump that had lyrics such as, “school was invented to keep kids under control”. That kind of pandering, I think, doesn’t really make parents’ lives easier. The relationships can already be adversarial enough without kids being told outright that their parents are just out to ruin their plans for having a good time all their lives.[/Warren]
See, now yur getting old…10, 15 years ago, you’d be able to listen to “Another Brick in the Wall” and not thought “Great song, but I disagree with the sentiment that ‘We don’t need no education’ or that school is ‘thought control’”…
Now, not so much. *rotfl*
- ttc
20:23 on November 10th, 2007
HA! Yeah, you got me.
But … you know, still different. Floyd was not marketed at children, not directly deliberately packaged for preteens. It was a retrospective indictment of the English boys’ school tradition, not a current-events brattish whine about today.
Oh well.
PS: This is what happens when good friends, who have known you for years, comment on your blog posts. I deserved it. Hell, I earned it. Love you lots, Bryce, I really do. If I could choose a brother, you’d be it. You’re still the Puck I need, and I’m grateful. I’ve always been glad to know you, and I always will be.