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Spend some time walking the halls of any middle school or high school and it is easy to see why school would try to enforce some type of non-touching rule. Girlfriends and boyfriends become a little to affectionate near the lockers, a boy kicks another boy in the leg, while another girl complain that someone ran into her and made her drop her books.

So what school districts do is over apply. "If they can't keep their hands to themselves then we institute a no touching rule". That is the way these school districts think. They believe that a zero tolerance policy can be enforced with students such as bringing a gun to school or smoking cigarettes on school grounds. The problem with this is that human beings by nature touch each other and a zero tolerance policy is destined to fail.

There is no way to keep students from touching each other because it is a matter of human nature. The problem is a lack of modesty. Years ago students were too modest to kiss in a hallway or touch a girl's butt in front of teacher. Today's media has dulled this exposure to the point that teens believe that is acceptable to touch each other in personal ways in front of their peers and teachers.

The no touching policies come into effect as an exaggerated way of dealing with this current lack of modesty. Unfortunately caught in the middle are the ordinary human acts of innocent children. These can be hugging a friend who is feeling bad or giving high fives to each other.

Rather than a no touching policy, school districts should have a policy slightly more open ended so that it allows touching to be ruled upon in a case by case basis. When rules such as this become so intrusive that a student can only be a cold robot to survive within the rule, it has become to severe. It cannot be regarded as zero tolerance. In the end there is no physical connections between students and that isn't true to the real world outside of school walls.

Learn more about this author, MJ Suttor.
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