Thursday, November 8, 2007

detention for hugging

This story about the Illinois teen who got detention for hugging her friend is everywhere. I heard it on NPR on my way home from work last night. Then I saw it on two of the nightly news stations before tucking in. Then this morning it got a pretty prominent placement on the Today Show.

First of all, the amount of news coverage this story is getting is spirit-crushing. Yes, I'm propagating it, I know. But really, every night when I listen to the news, even NPR a lot of the time, I think to myself, Why do I subject myself to this? But it did make me think of Krista's screeching girl post (I'm sure some of those girls were hugging), and how adolescent girls are the huggiest bunch of people, and how awesome that is. Getting hugged by a 13-year-old is probably the best feeling in the world. I know, cause I recently did get a hug from Krista's son. Getting detention for hugging is clearly the stupidest thing ever, only to be topped by the news stations picking up the story and actually asking the question: "Have school officials gone too far?" Do we even have to ask?

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