US Schools Ban Looking at Anyone
Well, it won't be long now, our schools will shortly be banning eye-contact for fear that it might lead to fornication in the hallways. A tip of the turban 
to Becky at Just a Girl in Short Shorts talking about whatever [now defunct blog] for alerting us to a disturbing trend that is sweeping the nation:
Thank God America is finally addressing the issue of Middle School children hugging each other.
One day Hal Beaulieu, a thirteen year old student at Kilmer Middle School in Virginia, hopped up from his lunch table (1) and sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office.
Dear readers, we are turning our nation into an asylum. Just a few months ago two teens were arrested for slapping the butts of their female classmates.
UPI,
22 Jul 2007,
Teens facing sex charges for butt slapsTwo 13-year-old Oregon boys are facing serious sex charges for allegedly slapping female classmates' bottoms as a form of horseplay.
Police arrested Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison of McMinnville and if convicted could be permanently marked as sex offenders, The Portland Oregonian said Sunday. The teens also could spend as long as 10 years in juvenile detention if found guilty.
While the boys' parents have opposed such a harsh penalty, McMinnville District Attorney Bradley Berry said such youthful acts could have longstanding consequences for the alleged victims.
"Longstanding consequences for the alleged victims"? What nonsense! Unless the boys slapped the girls' faces with their penises, I seriously doubt any horseplay in middle school can ever lead to a permanent scar on anyone's psyche. Let's all get some perspective here. Let me tell you what long term consequences are: being put on a sex offender registry for life for a teenage misbehaviour. This is not rape, this is not a brutal, violent sexual attack. If this happened to my son I would have no qualms about destroying the life of that idiot prosecutor.
I previously reported about a 4 year old who was suspended for "sexual harassment" after the boy hugged a teacher's aide, read Young Children cannot be sexual predators. What kind of sick pervert thinks young children should be charged with sexual harassment for hugging? What we need in this country is for our young children to hug each other more, otherwise they will have no outlet for their emotions other than coming to school one day with a gun and blasting everyone in sight, which now I am beginning to understand more and more each passing day.
By the way, hugging is perhaps one of the only acts that unite us with the animal kingdom. Cats do not write letters to each other, nor do dogs make phone calls to their loved ones. But they do hug.
I fear that we are turning our students into unfeeling zombies. They can't hold hands, they can't flirt, they can't kiss, they can't hug. Then they eventually finish school and go into the workplace where they can't meet anyone of the opposite sex for fear of sexual harassment. That so many young men turn eventually into sex abusers is no surprise to me.
And oh yeah, bring back dodge ball to gym classes; our boys are being brought up as sexless pussies. No wonder half the country is filled with defeatist cowards.
Related:
AOL News,
25 Jul 2007,
Boys Face Trial Over Slapping ChargesThe arrests, critics said, reflect a trend toward criminalizing adolescent sexual behavior. Between 1998 and 2002, juvenile arrests for sex offenses other than rape or prostitution rose 9 percent -- the only kind of juvenile arrests that rose during that time, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
"More and more, they are criminalizing normal adolescent or preadolescent behavior," said Chuck Aron, co-chairman of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers juvenile justice committee.
There is a happy ending though: Thirteen-year-olds Cory Mashburn, center, and Ryan Cornelison talk with their defense attorney in court just before their case was dismissed (2) in McMinnville, Ore. The controversial case lasted for six months. Here's a video interview of the two boys: click here.
ENDNOTES
(1):
The Washington Post, 18 Jun 2007, Va. School's No-Contact Rule Is a Touchy Subject
Fairfax County middle school student Hal Beaulieu hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office.
Among his crimes: hugging.
All touching -- not only fighting or inappropriate touching -- is against the rules at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna. Hand-holding, handshakes and high-fives? Banned. The rule has been conveyed to students this way: "NO PHYSICAL CONTACT!!!!!"
School officials say the rule helps keep crowded hallways and lunchrooms safe and orderly, and ensures that all students are comfortable. But Hal, 13, and his parents think the school's hands-off approach goes too far, and they are lobbying for a change.
(2):
Michelle Malkin, 20 Aug 2007, Charges dismissed against behind-swatting boys
It’s over. A judge dismissed charges today in the insane case of two boys in Oregon charged with multiple counts of felony sexual abuse, banned from school and forbidden any contact with their friends after being accused of swatting the behinds of fellow classmates.
... The News-Register newspaper of McMinnville reported that a “civil compromise” reached by prosecutors and the defense called for both boys to apologize, to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a “boundaries education” program.Seems to me that the individuals who need “boundaries education” are the officials who allowed this case to progress as far as it did.
Nuts.
