The no touching rules most schools carry is absolutely ridiculous even on its face, and the underlying policy is just ludicrous. Schools want to strike out inappropriate behaviour. Fine. But to say that when my child falls down on the playground and can't get a hug from her teacher (who is a wonderful woman), or her friend, makes me angry.

The no touching policy is just one more indication that public schools are less concerned about any actual education and more concerned about student behaviour.

Let's be honest here - does it really matter if a couple of high school kids are making out in the bathroom? Are they having sex? No? Good. Are they A or B average students? Yes? Good. So to mandate a policy that doesn't allow those (or any) students to touch increases student frustration and could very well to less concentration on studies.

And in grammar school (or primary school, or elementary school, however you label it), to not allow the teachers to touch the students, or them to touch each other - and by touch I mean hug, pat, or comfort - can be extremely disheartening to the student. When they get a good grade they deserve a pat on the back. When they fall on the playground (as I mentioned above) they sometimes need a good hug to get them feeling better. Or when they're just feeling blah and need a little pick me up, a smile and a hair ruffle can be all it takes to get them going again.

Has a simple touch ever lead to unacceptable behaviour? No, it hasn't. Hugging a friend has never lead to anything more than, oh, what? A hug! That's right. A pat on the back has never started a fight. So for the schools who mandate these policies to say that "touching leads to inappropriate behaviour" isn't true. They're getting lazy. Tired of trying to keep an eye on student safety, they've decided to keep the students "safe" by telling them they can't have any physical contact. Because we all know THAT will work, don't we. That was rhetorical, don't try to answer it.

So to disallow any sort of touching to try and quell inappropriate behaviour is going totally overboard. Outline the behaviours that are inappropriate. Discipline those behaviours. But mere touching? It's no more inappropriate than a smile or a kind word. Stop being lazy, school administrators.

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