IWF recently highlighted the shenanigans that often come along with sexual harassment policies on campus. Two news stories today, indicate similar problems exist on the K-12 level.
First, from Illinois:
A 13-year-old junior high school student was given two days of detention after school officials spotted her hugging friends after school last Friday.
Megan Coulter, an eighth-grade student at Mascoutah Middle School, was hugging her friends goodbye after school Friday when vice principal, Randy Blakely, saw her and told her she would receive two after-school detentions.
Then, from Alabama:
The debate of public displays of affection in school is hitting home in Alabama. The mother of a student in Autauga County says her daughter was disciplined for simply hugging a friend….
She says the hug wasn’t meant to be sexual. She says her daughter was consoling a male friend who recently lost a parent.
The goal of a harassment policy isn’t to be the hug police, it is to stop legitimate harassment. When schools include activities such as hugging in these policies, they are trivializing harassment and doing a disservice to their students.