Hands off! School ban is a touchy subject.

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When Hal Beaulieu put an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder during school lunch, he wasn't looking for trouble. Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Va., however, has a rule against physical contact between students. A school security officer saw the hug and sent Hal to the school office.

"I didn't think it would be a big deal," Hal told The Washington Post. "I think hugging is a good thing." Hal's parents agreed. They thought the school's no-contact policy was too extreme and lobbied the school board to change it. Kilmer's principal, Deborah Hernandez, however, says the policy is the best way to protect students from unwanted physical contact.

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In her crowded school, Hernandez said, she's seen a poke provoke a fight and knows that a handshake can be a gang sign. "You have to have an absolute rule with students," she told The Washington Post.

Kilmer isn't the only school that bans physical contact. Many schools have rules about touching. School officials say the rules help keep the peace and make sure students behave appropriately. Critics counter that those schools are going overboard.

DON'T TOUCH!

At South East Junior High in Iowa City, Iowa, student behavior is guided by the administration's slogan "handshake or hands-off." This unwritten rule sparked criticism last year when a student wrote a letter to a local paper about what he viewed as South East's antihugging policy. "Nowhere does it say 'no hugs,'" the South East principal, Deb Wretman, told CE. "If you were to visit us, you'd see people hugging each other but in a manner that's appropriate."

The policy, Wretman says, is modeled on codes of behavior that students will encounter in the workplace. Shaking hands is perfectly appropriate, she says, but hard slaps on the back that can trigger fights or group hugs that block hallways are not. In a school with 700 students, Wretman says, "We try to make things very simple so everyone knows what to expect." With respect to critics who say such policies are too extreme, she notes that most of them aren't trying to create a safe environment for kids.

I NEED A HUG!

At West Side Middle School in Groton, Conn., girls walk arm in arm down hallways and friends high-five each other in class. Fights are rare. "I hug all my friends all the time, and nobody's ever told us to stop or not to do it," says Alma Doran, 14. If students block the hallways or if physical contact looks like it might turn violent, she says, teachers step in and break it up. "To keep people from touching each other is way too extreme a way of preventing violence," says Alma, "because it also prevents healthy interaction between friends."

Hundreds of people who posted online responses to news stories about Kilmer's no-contact policy voiced similar opinions, including Tennessee psychologist Helen Smith. "If every behavior is seen in terms of black and white, how will kids learn where the boundaries are?" she writes. "No touching at all teaches that normal expressions of behavior are aberrant--or that they have to sneak behind the back of those in authority to get or show affection."

Get Talking

Ask students: Do you hug your friends at school? Do you give them pats on the back or high fives? Why might some schools ban all physical contact between students? Why might people oppose that rule?

Notes Behind the News

* Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Va., is overcrowded. Instead of the 850 students it was built to house, 1,100 kids attend classes there. Principal Deborah Hernandez says that with so many students crammed into the space, the black-and-white, zero-tolerance rule of no touching becomes even more important.

* Hal Beaulieu's parents are considering suing Kilmer Middle School over the policy, which Hal's father called "totalitarian." Beaulieu's parents believe that the policy fails to teach children appropriate boundaries.

* Some fear that making handshakes taboo in school could ill-prepare kids for the real world. In western society, handshakes are a gesture of goodwill. However, customs vary between cultures. For instance, physical contact isn't commonplace in Japanese culture or the Orthodox Jewish religion.

* Hugs among classmates aren't the only things getting the boot in schools. At some schools, including Discovery Canyon Campus, a prekindergarten-grade 12 learning community in Colorado Springs, Colo., recess games such as tag have been banned. Administrators say that an innocent game of tag can lead to discomfort among the students as well as playground violence. Some experts disagree, saying that such games teach social development skills and that eliminating them could stunt kids' emotional growth.

Doing More

Organize students into two groups--one for the ban and one against it. Have each group come up with five reasons the ban is a good or a bad idea.