Every Touch Is a Bad Touch

Reducing violence and inappropriate contact in schools is one thing, but this is quite another:

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!!!!!"

In addition to throwing a wrench into the mildly irritating "Hugs Not Drugs" campaign, this policy invites that annoying kid we all remember (or were) to wave his finger near another kid's face repeating "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!".

Perhaps Kilmer Middle School should take their policy just a step further and ban all verbal contact as well. This would certainly prevent name-calling, teasing, and offensive language from disrupting the school day.

We certainly wouldn't want children to learn how to interact with one another, now would we?