Hands off!

Ok, apparently I'm only blogging nowadays when something ticks me off. I'm up for another rant. It seems I have found another glaring example of how common sense has died. Sorry.
A school in Virginia has now banned touching between students. All touching. Now, at first glance, you can concede this may not be so bad. You don't want your 13-year-old making out in the halls. But this rule goes as far as to ban high fiving and putting your arm around a fellow student. Punishments for giving your pal a high-five include up to suspension, if you've been "previously warned." Really!?!
I saw an interview with the PTA president of this school. The first question was, naturally, "Do you support this?" She replied, "Well, it's common sense...of course I do." What?! Common sense tells you the opposite! Her point was a fear of escalation...one kid puts his arm around a "girlfriend," the next kid wants to hug, the next wants to kiss, and so on. One boy high-fives, it turns into bumping chests, it grows to several kids bumping chests, and so on. Where are the teachers in this school? Are these kids unsupervised? Maybe the teachers are just lazy. Or afraid of being sued for telling kids to quit suckin face during lunch. Maybe the students have too much time between classes and their lunch is too long. If they want "touching" rules, make it an "inappropriate or unruly touching" rule. At least then, there is a little wiggle room. Teachers can use ::key word:: common sense to determine whether a situation can escalate to be inappropriate or needs to be addressed, or whether it's harmless growing up. Going through the chain of command on punishments that my school had would serve as a checks and balances system against faulty sense. I'm a believer that as individuals, many of us have good sense. We know when something is generally right or wrong. It's only in numbers that our sense dwindles.
Kids learn through interaction. They have to make mistakes and they have to be able to progress naturally with their friends. Remember your first "boyfriend" or "girlfriend"? Mine was in middle school. Holding hands during lunch...Forget your boy/girlfriend. What about your best friend? How many times did you hug your best friend after passing off a note in between classes? What about when she broke up with her first boyfriend and was so upset? Didn't you console her with your arm around her, giving her a shoulder to cry on?
On top of all this, middle school kids are at a very rebellious age. I remember in 7th grade, my mother wouldn't let me dye my hair. So, at school one day, I colored a fat streak in my blonde hair with a pink highlighter. I didn't dye it, did I? So, yea, lets tell them NOT to touch. Don't most middle school kids do the opposite of what they're told, or at least try to find a way around it? The bigger deal we make of not doing it, the more they will want to.
If there are kids touching inappropriatly in schools, this is not a student body problem, this is a parenting problem. The situation should be addressed and parents notified of what's going on and that it's unacceptable school behavior. You don't need a touching ban to deal with that. All you need is a little common sense!