sounds like a smart cookie, I hope she goes far. I'd bet a bit o' cash she is more articulate than the people she is trying to persuade.

LOL, Swiss, got that right!

You don't understand. This is just another in a long line of "other people are icky and want to hurt you" memes. By turning everyone into isolated hermits, we can all become nutjobs like Jared Loughner and need to be medicated for our own safety.

And then everyone will be precisely equal in the eyes of the government. And that's all that really matters, isn't it?

STOP TOUCHING ME!

Back in the 90's, my high school's student handbook stated that "embracing" was inappropriate, and because it was too hard for staff to gauge what was and was not an embrace, hand-holding would be the extent of physical touching allowed on school grounds. Exceptions for dances, drama performances, etc. weren't spelled out, but they obviously existed.

I have a feeling this has more to do with covering the school's ass than any sexual morality. If the students aren't allowed to touch each other, then no student can claim that the school looked the other way while another student subjected him or her to unwanted touching. Just punish 'em all.

Burn the witch at the stake!

Oh, sorry...I think I was channeling a principal, or perhaps a member of the school board. Or maybe their lawyer?

Wow, am I glad I got through school before any of this crap started. I'm surprised that today's younger generation is able to function considering to what extent their schooling has tried to cripple them.

SO how would this have affected the bathroom-paid-hookup at my high school? I doubt they paid the girls for a hug....(and we were a good neighborhood!)

Insane, these no-tolerance policies, but they're designed to protect against ruinous lawsuits. Fix the damn legal system!

@Crusader:

Adopting a system of "Loser Pays" would go a long way towards curbing frivolous lawsuits against schools. Essentially, the school administrators can never win a court case. It costs more to fight than to settle, and a victory in court is Pyrrhic, as the cost of the victory exceeds the price of settlement.

The nuisance-causing plaintiff has what is referred to as a "free option" in the study of Finance. Assuming that the personal injury lawyer takes the case on contingency, it costs the plaintiff next to nothing to bring the action. Assuming the plaintiff's lawyer isn't too busy, the opportunity cost of filing the suit in hope of a quick settlement is similarly low.

With the adoption of loser pays, schools MIGHT be able to abandon zero tolerance in favor of something more sensible like a "reasonable person" standard. Instead of expelling Johnny (or Jamal, let's get real) for cutting his recess apple with a penknife, the kid might get a fair shake.

The Prussian schooling system is working as designed. See John Taylor Gatto.

Those kids at that high school should just start necking, French kissing, grabbing tits, whatever. A total display of defiance. What is the school going to do, kick them all out?

No PDA?? Say it isn't so!!

This will likely work as well as 'abstinence' teaching has. Not at all.

Give me a break.
I am so glad I got out of high school before all this. Makin out in the hall way before class was pretty much the norm in my school. And believe me, no one was crying about "bad touching" either.

It's like all those books and movies about spartan Catholic boarding schools in the early 20th century!

No touching, it's sinful!!!

No one ever addresses the issue that teenage boys need sex to properly develop.

You think the sicko Tucson gun nut would have started shooting if he had lots of cute girlfriends?

I think teenage sex should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Slightly OT, but:

I belong to that last generation of liberal families that had no sex ed in schools. I.e., no religious education either, at home or at school.

I would have considered either one to be a violation of my emotional privacy. In short, I'm VERY glad I was allowed to do all the reading research on both subjects on my own, in private (I love to read).

Thankfully, this was before most people had PCs as well, so there was certainly no cyberbullying!

Ah, the good old days....

I agree -- this sounds like school administration-driven CYA stuff to me, and unfortunately, I kind of understand it. That's not to say I agree with it, but nobody wants any lawsuit exposure these days.

My high school (back in the day) drew the line at kissing, whenever they bothered to enforce it. I got caught once, giving a girl a quick smoochie between classes. The physics teacher tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Romeo and Juliet was a play. No kissing in the hallways." I wish I'd had the presence of mind to suggest that all the world's a stage, but alas!

see, OldRPMDaddy, in my highschool you would'a got a ruler thwacking for smooching in the halls, or anything else untoward... and so we were really sneaky.

'course all these boneheads with their trousers hanging down would have gotten pants'd in the halls too...

Drifting further off-topic...SwissArmyD, to hear my mother tell it, the "pants on the ground" thing isn't as nearly as recent a phenomenon as people think. When my mom was in high school in South Dakota in the 1950s, the boys were doing the same thing. She remembers one fellow, walking along through the library, who was too preoccupied to notice another kid sneaking up behind him and stepping on his pants leg. His jeans slid right off!

He was going commando that day, too.

Not that I disagree with her in this case, but with a houseful of adolescents, whenever I hear a teenager say, "As a college-bound 17-year-old, I am insulted by the presumption that I am too immature..." I just grin! Is it the age or being college-bound that indicates maturity? Hmmm? Would a 16-year-old college-bound prodigy be mature? Would a 17-year-old bound for a lifetime working at Wal-Mart be immature?

Hmmm? Would a 16-year-old college-bound prodigy be mature?

Posted by: Old RPM Daddy at January 18, 2011 12:30 PM
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Well, I'd say yes, prodigies who actually manage to graduate early ARE pretty mature. You have to be to maintain your emotional discipline (and your grades) when you're surrounded by distinctly older kids who, even if they don't bully you, probably don't treat you as an equal or as a friend.