Florida Middle School Sends Student to Detention For Hugging a Fellow Student

Ben Graham | November 4, 2015
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A young eighth-grade girl in Oviedo, Fla., has been frightened into submission after a strict school policy against hugging landed her in detention.

Ella, a student at Jackson Heights Middle School, was shocked when her school disciplined her for hugging a fellow student before class. 

"I just, like, hugged them. It was literally for a second,” said Ella.

According to WKMG, the Seminole County School District bans “inappropriate touching” in their schools, but leaves the interpretation of the broad policy to the principals of each school. This year the principal decided to ban hugging, hand-holding and arm-linking all as inappropriate touching, printing it into the current edition of the school’s student manual.

"I do not feel that this 'no hugging, holding hands, arm-linking' would be considered inappropriate touching," said Kathy Fishbough, Ella's mother. "I do think about inappropriate touching and boys and girls of this age having feelings for one another, but that's not what we're dealing with here.”

“If the administration can't tell the difference between a friendly, 'How are you doing' hug and an inappropriate hug, then I think we have another big problem.”

Fishbough was so put-off by the policy that she called the principal to ask just how far the hugging ban reached.

"I did ask the principal, if something happened in our family, and she needed to console her cousin or her cousin wanted to console her, would she get in trouble? She said, 'Yes, ma'am. She would get a PDA.’”

Upon learning of the hugging ban, the school district’s legal department is taking a “very close look” at the Jackson Heights’ student manual.

 

 

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