Besieged Officials Say OK to Some Hugs at School

Besieged administrators at Nicolas Junior High School spent Thursday clarifying their policy on hugging and other public displays of affection.

A day after the interim principal said students should keep their hands and feet to themselves, a Fullerton School District official said some hugs and gestures such as “high fives” are allowed.

“This is a place of business,” Assistant Supt. Karin Lynch said. “Sometimes it’s appropriate to hug. If you’re making out in the bushes, that’s not appropriate.”

Television, radio and newspaper reporters descended on the campus Thursday to learn more about the school’s policy, which came to light Tuesday when two students complained about it at a school board meeting.

At that session, Alicia Galvan, 15, and schoolmate Katrina Weed, 14, said students were informed in January that hugging and any other type of touching on campus was banned.

Galvan also said she had been disciplined for hugging a male classmate. But Thursday, she said she had not been punished, a point that school officials confirmed.

“I was just threatened with Saturday school,” Galvan said. “I didn’t actually go. . . . I just wanted to be heard.”

The two students said they sought to be able to hug their friends without fear of punishment. At school Thursday, scores of their classmates stepped forward to support them.

Administrators on campus say they are making an effort to clarify for the students what is and is not appropriate. Lynch said Thursday that no one will be disciplined or reprimanded for hugging on campus unless the embrace is “inappropriate.”

Officials said most students who have been caught disrupting the educational environment at school by hugging or kissing have only been told to stop the behavior and get to class.

Interim Principal Tammy A. Brown had said Wednesday in an interview with The Times that public displays of affection are not appropriate at school and that forbidding all such behavior is “fair and consistent” and merely an enforcement of a long-standing rule.

“They told us not to hug, but now they’re saying we can hug,” said 13-year-old Tracey Gilmore, a student at Nicolas. “I think it’s very hypocritical. I understand that some signs of affection are inappropriate, but hugging isn’t bad. It just shows that we’re a much-loving school.”

In a world where bumper stickers suggest “Hugs Not Drugs” and “Arms Are for Hugging,” word that there is tension at Nicolas over student embraces shocked many.

“If a teacher told us not to hug, we’d just ignore them,” said Randi McGowen, 12, walking home with friends from Bell Intermediate School in Garden Grove. “They can’t take that away from us.”

“Yeah,” added Christie Martinez, 14. “We always give hugs. . . . It’s normal.”

Bell administrators say hugging “has never been an issue” there.

Sherine Smith, principal at Aliso Viejo Middle School, said hugging in the hallway occurs fairly often on the Laguna Niguel campus and rarely gets students in trouble.

“To a limited extent, I think it’s pretty common behavior for kids this age,” said Smith, adding that excessive public displays of affection are prohibited at the school.

But what constitutes the excessive part in such displays?

“It can get pretty complicated, Smith said. “Obviously, kissing is not allowed. And if a girl and her boyfriend are meeting every day and making out at lunchtime, we will bring them in and talk to them.”

Some displays of affection could violate sexual harassment rules, Smith said, creating a “hostile environment” by making students uncomfortable. “I think you just have to have common sense and judgment,” she said.