Unbanning Hugs
In response to the article I linked last night, I've just sent this message to the Free Hugs Campaign:
I recently read this article in the New York Times --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/style/28hugs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp --- about how junior high and high school students have increasingly been hugging as a greeting, which itself makes me feel good about how the world could be.
Yet the same article mentions that "schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., [...] have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule." I think we need to mobilize against this kind of antisocial nonsense. The article mentions that Noreen Hajinlian, principal of the George G. White junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., banned hugging two years ago for fear of sexual harassment issues and in keeping with rules against public displays of affection.
The article only talks about schools in the U.S.A., but this could be a spreading problem if we don't work against it as quickly as we can. I think we should learn which schools are putting hug restrictions in place, and we should see about organizing peaceful hug protests outside the boundaries of school property. Get Free Hugs people rallying as close to these schools as possible in protest of those restrictions and to offer hugs to the people who want them but can't during the day of classes.
I recently read this article in the New York Times --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/style/28hugs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp --- about how junior high and high school students have increasingly been hugging as a greeting, which itself makes me feel good about how the world could be.
Yet the same article mentions that "schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., [...] have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule." I think we need to mobilize against this kind of antisocial nonsense. The article mentions that Noreen Hajinlian, principal of the George G. White junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., banned hugging two years ago for fear of sexual harassment issues and in keeping with rules against public displays of affection.
The article only talks about schools in the U.S.A., but this could be a spreading problem if we don't work against it as quickly as we can. I think we should learn which schools are putting hug restrictions in place, and we should see about organizing peaceful hug protests outside the boundaries of school property. Get Free Hugs people rallying as close to these schools as possible in protest of those restrictions and to offer hugs to the people who want them but can't during the day of classes.