Should Hugging Be Banned?
Hugging has taken a whole new meaning for teens. Boys and girls are bonding with each other by hugging it out. It's a sign of hello, affection, or even just acknowledgment. It's so common that teens who don't hug are seen as the odd one out. "We're not afraid, we just get in and hug," says Danny Schneider, a high school student in New Jersey says. "The guy friends, we don't care. You just get right in there and jump in."
Not everyone is as comfortable with all this physical contact. Some principals have taken action and dished out a new rule. For example, a junior high school in New Jersey banned hugging. Other schools are following suit and doing the same or imposing a three second rule. "Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory," says Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School. "It was needless hugging -- they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn't a greeting. It was happening all day."
To most teens hugging is something that comes to them naturally, but not everyone agrees with socially hugging it out. "Hugging is more common in my opinion in people who act like friends," Amy Heaton, a freshman at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School says. "It's like air-kissing. It's really superficial."
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