Fears of sexual harassment suits have school officials on hug alert;
Harassment cases cited in stopping gestures; critics call it too much
By STELLA M. CHAVEZ / The Dallas Morning News. October 19, 2007
schavez@dallasnews.com
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A 7-year-old boy in Duncanville gets in trouble for telling a classmate to wear a darker shirt because he can see her bra strap. The school suspends him and labels the incident as sexual harassment.

From bans on hugging to labeling comments as sexual harassment, schools are cracking down on anything that smacks of sex. Critics say teachers and administrators have become too fearful of lawsuits and have stopped letting kids be kids.

Recent precedent-setting lawsuits have made it clear that school officials must respond to complaints of student-on-student sexual harassment or face possible court action.

"I think it's the kind of world we live in today, but you would hope that common sense would prevail," said Jeff Horner, a Houston attorney who represents school districts.

Experts liken the crackdown on student behavior to the way districts responded to safety and security issues after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Archie McAfee, executive director of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, said school principals and administrators are caught in the middle.

If a school district punishes a student for what parents say is a minor offense, it faces scrutiny. But if a district doesn't take a complaint seriously, it could be held responsible.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that school districts can be held liable for ignoring complaints of student-on-student harassment or failing to protect students.

In that case, Davis vs. Monroe County School Board of Education, the parent of a fifth-grade female student sued the school district for failing to intervene when a fellow fifth-grader harassed the girl for several months. In the court's eyes, the district had been negligent.

Jim Walsh, an Austin lawyer who specializes in school law, said the case proved that sexual harassment is a legal concern – not just a moral and educational one.

An earlier case set the precedent for dealing with sexual harassment at the elementary level. In 1993, the U.S. Department of Education ruled against a school district in Eden Prairie, Minn., for not responding in a timely manner to a first-grade girl's complaints that a group of boys, ages 6 to 9, harassed her on the school bus.

"The basic lesson learned was that sexual harassment can occur even among elementary-age children," said Mr. Walsh. "In the training I do for administrators ... (I tell them that) age is obviously a factor, but don't rule out the fact that what you have going on is sexual harassment."

But districts can also be criticized for taking too tough a stance.

In the Duncanville case, the boy who told a girl to fix her bra strap during gym class was accused of sexual harassment, suspended for two days and temporarily assigned to an alternative school. The district changed the offense to "bullying" after his parents complained that the sex-related charge was inaccurate and severe.

Nan Stein, a senior research scientist at the Center for Research on Women at the Wellesley Centers for Women, urges school districts not to rush to judgment in sexual harassment cases.

"Part of it is they have a rather loose, flexible concept of what's sexual harassment," she said. "I applaud their attention to the problem, but they need to do something proactively, not in response to."

To help, Ms. Stein has developed a curriculum for teachers that deals with harassment as well as bullying.

"I believe you can do this in the classroom in a non-panicked, age-appropriate way," she said. "There are ways to make this a fun and interesting subject in schools."

Some administrators say the criticism of their policies is overblown.

David Hadley, the principal at Fossil Hill Middle School in Keller ISD, said his school's ban on hugging and hand-holding is not unreasonable.

Fossil Hill made national headlines recently after a teacher chided eighth-grader Ashley Highberger for holding hands with a male friend.

"Our big deal is with boy-girl affection," he said. "It's to keep kids from being inappropriate in school."

In response, Ashley started a petition drive to force the district to change its rules. She collected more than 300 student signatures but suspended her efforts because she doesn't believe the district will ease up.

"I can understand how a 25-minute hug or making out in the hallway would be PDA, but I don't see how holding hands is," she said. "You hug your parents or little brother or sister and it doesn't lead to things."

Dr. Hadley sees the issue differently. Bans on PDAs – public displays of affection – are common in school districts nationwide, he said. And he adds that his district's rule is not as rigid as it seems. If someone is grieving a lost loved one, for example, a hug is acceptable.

He said zero-tolerance policies can go too far, and that he believes any enforcement should be coupled with good judgment.

Mr. McAfee and Mr. Walsh say it would be impossible to write a law that every district could apply evenly and that would take into account every circumstance.

But school administrators in Texas do have more flexibility these days.

In 2005, state legislators passed a bill that gives principals and superintendents more latitude in dealing with violations of the student code of conduct. The bill allows districts to consider a student's disciplinary history, or lack of it, when meting out punishment.

"I don't know where you draw the line," Mr. McAfee said. "It just has to be done in such a way that people are using common sense. It's a fine line administrators have to walk."


Girl gets detention for hugging
Illinois middle school bans public displays of affection; parents urge change
The Associated Press
updated 5:47 p.m. ET, Wed., Nov. 7, 2007
MASCOUTAH, Ill. - Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter.

The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.

“I feel it is crazy,” said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.

“I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend,” she said.

Megan’s mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren’t even real hugs — just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.

“It’s hilarious to the point of ridicule,” Coulter said. “I’m still dumbfounded that she’s having to do this.”

District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.

It states: “Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.”

Parents urge change in policy
Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions
because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

“We don’t agree with it, but I certainly don’t want her to get in more trouble,” Coulter said.

The couple plan to attend the next school board meeting to ask board members to consider rewording the policy or be more specific in what is considered a display of affection.

“I’m just hoping the school board will open their eyes and just realize that maybe they shouldn’t be punishing us for hugs,” Megan said.

No hugs allowed at Ill. middle school
October 2, 2007
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OAK PARK, Ill. --If you need a hug, you won't get it at Percy Julian Middle School. Principal Victoria Sharts banned hugging among the suburban Chicago school's 860 students anywhere inside the building. She said students were forming "hug lines" that made them late for classes and crowded the hallways.

"Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls," Sharts said.

Another reason to institute the no-hugging policy was that some hugs could be too long and too close, she said.

"There is another side to the issue when a hug is either unwanted or becomes inappropriate as judged by one of the students involved," Sharts wrote in a statement to parents. "On occasion, we do deal with those incidents. The goal is always to promote safe and orderly hallways where everybody can get by, be safe, and be on time."