by Kim Bonnalie

Created on: September 02, 2008

I have never heard of a ban on hugs in school, but I will also be the first to say I sometimes tend to avoid the news. It's overbearing and all too depressive for me to watch in the morning. Nothing like starting the morning out with a bang right? So when I happened to come across this title, I actually laughed, thinking this was supposed to be a humorous category, one dripping with sarcasm and satire about how ridiculous Americans have become, and come to find out, unbeknownst to me, this is real.

I am astonished. A hug, of all things, shows nothing but affection. In today's world, with all the crime, drugs, divorce, death, and complete and utter breakdown of the human as a person, we are worried about our kids hugging each other in school? You have got to be kidding me. For one point, a human baby would not survive if not given touch. Physical touch is a huge part in our lives. It is a necessity for growth, whether it be emotion or mental. We worry about sexual intentions, when we should be worried about the callousness of our kids! If we educated our children on sex and the consequences and spent more time with them, helping them make educated decisions, we wouldn't need to be so worried about them.
I live in a relatively small town and in the past 3 years we have had two teenagers shoot either one or both of their parents, and then kill themselves. Now for a town this size, nothing like that should ever happen, but it does. In the past 10 years there have been suicides and shootings. It is heartbreaking to me that these kids had nowhere they could go for help when they needed it most. A kid needs to feel loved. It is hard enough for a child in today's world to feel secure and self confident. Why take away the only form of physical comfort that has been a basic need of humanity for thousands of years?
Also, lets think of this; the sexual harassment thing. 20 years ago, no one would've ever thought a teacher hugging a child meant anything other than the teacher was proud, or comforting the kid. If we ban hugs in school, we are insinuating hugs are dirty, wrong and inappropriate. So what happens when a family friend hugs a kid outside of school, or a relative gives a kid a hug? This takes the already ridiculous and pathetic sexual harassment line and shades it even more.
If you had a child and your child went missing, what is the first thing you do when you see them? If your kid falls down and hurts themselves, what do you do? If you haven't seen a relative in a long time, how do you greet them? The world without hugs is a sad place. Hugs are a staple greeting, joyous, they fill a need for human touch, whoever deemed them inappropriate, needs to slow down on the java and take a deep breath. By doing this, you could be insuring that our future generations become emotionless druid with no grasp of what it means to be human!
I cannot say I know how serious this is, and how many school are considering it, but I can guarantee one thing. I will never allow my children to go to s school where they cannot say the Pledge of Allegiance, say Christmas instead of Winter Festival and certainly, never to a school where they cannot hug each other. I would never make my child live so cheated

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