Created By: nbrSummary: Recently in the news, a thirteen-year-old girl at an Illinois middle school received two days of suspension for hugging several of her friends. This seemed so weird to me that I did a couple of Google searches to find out more, and it appears that bans on hugging (along with other restrictive policies about physical contact between students or on public displays of affection) are not that uncommon in middle schools and high schools. They are justified by the need to keep order (because prolonged or multi-person hugs clog traffic in hallways between classes), by teachers' and administrators' inability to determine when hugs are unwanted by their recipients, and by the belief that allowing any physical contact encourages a permissive attitude that will lead to disruption and fighting. Below are links to several relevant news stories. (Created Nov. 10, 2007)