Legal Commentary

Students who hug too much.

A measure of how rapidly the ritual is spreading is that some students complain of peer pressure to hug to fit in. And schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching ? or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class ? have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule....

?If somebody were to not hug someone, to never hug anybody, people might be just a little wary of them and think they are weird or peculiar,? said Gabrielle Brown, a freshman at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan.

Comforting as the hug may be, principals across the country have clamped down. ?Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,? said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School, a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., who banned hugging two years ago. ?It was needless hugging ? they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn?t a greeting. It was happening all day.?

Full post as published by Althouse on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).