No High Fives?

Lame.

Connecticut, I'm disapointed. Middle School students in Milford, CT can potentially face *expulsion* by making any physical contact with any other student in any manor, even something as simple as a high five. It all stems from a student was sent to the hospital after being struck in the groin.

The principal of the school sent out a letter to the parents of the students that stated:

"Observed behaviors of concern recently exhibited include kicking others in the groin area, grabbing and touching of others in personal areas, hugging and horseplay. Physical contact is prohibited to keep all students safe in the learning environment..."

Now, this particular situation is appealing to me because I work as a resource room teacher at a middle school. I walk all over the school all day long and go in and out of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classrooms all day as long as walk alongside students in during passing time. I one of my first priorities in my job is the safety of the students. There have been times where I've walked through the hallways and seen some suspect things where I have had to go in and tell the kids to go on their way to class, but nothing extremely out of line and worth handing out punishments.

I'm all for safety for the kids.

But to ban all contact is just ridiculous. There are probably five kids of mine that always hold their hand out for a high five every time I walk past them. There are plenty of kids that high five one another on a daily basis. Middle school girls hug each other every chance they get, middle school girls hug like most people breathe, it is just always going on.

Also you have to realize that these kids are going through puberty. There can be times where there are kids of opposite sex that are fairly close to one another and will kind of flirt with one another and a small degree of touching one another happens. In which case, you simply have to pick your battles. Then you have to think about gym class, and how if the kids are playing basketball that they will be making physical contact with one another, its just the nature of the game. This principal needs to get with the program and walk down the hallway of the school to see what goes on themselves. Get the teachers to open their eyes more and fairly punish things that diserve being punished. But to make it so that the kids can't high five one another after they talk about how they did something cool the night before...

Lame.