MASCOUTAH, Ill. - Maybe they hugged it out: school officials resolved their dispute with the parents of a 13-year-old girl given detention for hugging her friends.
Melissa and Dean Coulter met with officials of the Mascoutah School District 19 to discuss the two detentions given their daughter, Megan, for hugging friends goodbye for the weekend. School officials said the eighth grader violated a policy banning public displays of affection.
"Our whole purpose of the meeting was to get them to talk to us and discuss what changes needed to be made and if (the policy) could be improved," Dean Coulter said. "We scheduled it because we figured it was the right thing to do."
Her parents told her to serve the detentions to avoid getting into more trouble, and had planned to take the issue before the Board of Education at its meeting Thursday.
Superintendent Sam McGowen said in a statement Monday that the Coulters had withdrawn their request to speak at the meeting, and decided instead to meet with administrators.
"I'm grateful they sought this meeting and we could have a level of discussion that helps us both understand each other's concerns more clearly," McGowen stated.
He said he and Assistant Superintendent Terry Gibbons met with the Coulters on Friday and discussed the policy that led to the detentions.
"We told them that we reviewed it on an annual basis and that's where we left it," he said.
Coulter said McGowen was very receptive during the meeting, and that the family is satisfied with the district's promise to at least look into revising the policy.
"I just feel like we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, and that was for them to talk to us," he said.
I saw this article last week and never got around to posting it. You will probably see this posted by me in future threads about the children not being able to express their creativity.
wall street journal wrote:One of the classic books on college pranks is memorably titled, "If At All Possible, Involve a Cow." These days we probably need to add, "And Bring a Lawyer."
The Christian Science Monitor reports that colleges across the country now require permits or permission slips for undergraduate pranks. This was perhaps inevitable: First they came for dodgeball. Then tag. How long could something as spontaneous and fun as the prank escape?
Educational administrators justify the new prank rules by invoking 9/11, though most college pranks have as much to do with terrorism as a greased pig in the hallway has to do with the invasion of Poland. But the war on spontaneity continues.
In Cincinnati, the nannies who run the Little League have decided to ban chatter on the diamond. The league president explained: "If you're saying, 'Swing, batter,' and this poor little kid is swinging at everything, he feels bad and maybe he turns to the catcher and gets mad. Honest to gosh, I didn't have any trouble doing this."
A Colorado Springs elementary school is one of the latest to ban tag on its playground. Running will still be allowed as long as there is no chasing. The ban wasn't the idea of overprotective educrats -- it was the result rather of children and their parents who "complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will." Other schools have already banned swings, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, crawl tubes, sandboxes and even hugs.
At Mascoutah Middle School in Illinois, 13-year-old Megan Coulter was recently given detention for hugging two friends goodbye before the weekend -- a violation of the school's ban on "public displays of affection." One California school district worried about "bullying, violence, self-esteem and lawsuits" also banned tag, cops and robbers, touch football and every other activity that involved "bodily contact."
In some schools free play has been replaced by organized relay races and adult-supervised activities, in order to protect children from spontaneous outbreaks of creativity. This makes sense to the sort of person who thinks children must at all costs be protected from the scrapes of life and insulated from the prospect of having to deal with social interactions or disappointment.
Childhood -- or at least the fun part -- is falling victim to a potent stew of psychobabble, litigation and over-wrought over protectiveness. In North Carolina principals in at least eight schools, worried about how school children will cope with scorching summer heat, want to raise thousands of dollars to erect large canopies and shelters over playgrounds."
If that's not enough reason to keep kids inside, ABC News recently reported that there are actually germs in playgrounds where (God help us) . . . children play. Out of 60 playgrounds tests, ABC's exposé discovered, "59.had evidence of bacteria or mold that could make children sick, tests showed."
News flash for ABC: Check out your own lunch room; or any place kids play. Where there are children, there are germs. That's why our moms made us wash our hands before dinner.
But if we are already setting up canopies on playgrounds and swabbing jungle-gyms for bacteria, can actual bubble-wrap be far behind?
We're already paying the price for the epidemic of overprotectiveness. Congress has appropriated more than $600 million to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. An entire generation of kids now rides in minivans to schools where they aren't allowed to chase one another, swing on swings or play dodgeball. And we wonder why we have an obesity problem.
The Duke of Wellington once said (perhaps apocryphally) that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" -- reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation's character. At this point we had better hope that's not true about America, unless we plan on going to war against an enemy who also values non-competitive, risk-free, self-esteem-building play activities for its young.
The Duke of Wellington once said (perhaps apocryphally) that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" -- reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation's character.
wow, that's a little ridiculous, I realize I'm in High School, but kids kiss, and whatever else in the hallway at my school all the time (get your minds out of the gutter, not like that ), and I remember kids hugging in Elementary and Middle School all the time, no big deal. Haha, there was actually this 'couple' that very crudely attempted to make out in between the busses after school so no teachers could see them.
dream_017 wrote:I saw this article last week and never got around to posting it. You will probably see this posted by me in future threads about the children not being able to express their creativity.
wall street journal wrote:One of the classic books on college pranks is memorably titled, "If At All Possible, Involve a Cow." These days we probably need to add, "And Bring a Lawyer."
The Christian Science Monitor reports that colleges across the country now require permits or permission slips for undergraduate pranks. This was perhaps inevitable: First they came for dodgeball. Then tag. How long could something as spontaneous and fun as the prank escape?
Educational administrators justify the new prank rules by invoking 9/11, though most college pranks have as much to do with terrorism as a greased pig in the hallway has to do with the invasion of Poland. But the war on spontaneity continues.
In Cincinnati, the nannies who run the Little League have decided to ban chatter on the diamond. The league president explained: "If you're saying, 'Swing, batter,' and this poor little kid is swinging at everything, he feels bad and maybe he turns to the catcher and gets mad. Honest to gosh, I didn't have any trouble doing this."
A Colorado Springs elementary school is one of the latest to ban tag on its playground. Running will still be allowed as long as there is no chasing. The ban wasn't the idea of overprotective educrats -- it was the result rather of children and their parents who "complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will." Other schools have already banned swings, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, crawl tubes, sandboxes and even hugs.
At Mascoutah Middle School in Illinois, 13-year-old Megan Coulter was recently given detention for hugging two friends goodbye before the weekend -- a violation of the school's ban on "public displays of affection." One California school district worried about "bullying, violence, self-esteem and lawsuits" also banned tag, cops and robbers, touch football and every other activity that involved "bodily contact."
In some schools free play has been replaced by organized relay races and adult-supervised activities, in order to protect children from spontaneous outbreaks of creativity. This makes sense to the sort of person who thinks children must at all costs be protected from the scrapes of life and insulated from the prospect of having to deal with social interactions or disappointment.
Childhood -- or at least the fun part -- is falling victim to a potent stew of psychobabble, litigation and over-wrought over protectiveness. In North Carolina principals in at least eight schools, worried about how school children will cope with scorching summer heat, want to raise thousands of dollars to erect large canopies and shelters over playgrounds."
If that's not enough reason to keep kids inside, ABC News recently reported that there are actually germs in playgrounds where (God help us) . . . children play. Out of 60 playgrounds tests, ABC's exposé discovered, "59.had evidence of bacteria or mold that could make children sick, tests showed."
News flash for ABC: Check out your own lunch room; or any place kids play. Where there are children, there are germs. That's why our moms made us wash our hands before dinner.
But if we are already setting up canopies on playgrounds and swabbing jungle-gyms for bacteria, can actual bubble-wrap be far behind?
We're already paying the price for the epidemic of overprotectiveness. Congress has appropriated more than $600 million to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. An entire generation of kids now rides in minivans to schools where they aren't allowed to chase one another, swing on swings or play dodgeball. And we wonder why we have an obesity problem.
The Duke of Wellington once said (perhaps apocryphally) that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" -- reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation's character. At this point we had better hope that's not true about America, unless we plan on going to war against an enemy who also values non-competitive, risk-free, self-esteem-building play activities for its young.
I remember when I was in about 5th grade they started to ban tag on the Playground, we did it anyway, but seriously, if Kids can't play tag at recess, what are they supposed to do???Another stupid thing they did was limit your time on the swingset, IMO whoever gets there first gets the swing...run faster next time kiddies.
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by Omaha Red Sox » Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:41 am 
), and I remember kids hugging in Elementary and Middle School all the time, no big deal. Haha, there was actually this 'couple' that very crudely attempted to make out in between the busses after school so no teachers could see them. 
