WASHINGTON — The parents of an eighth-grade Florida girl who briefly hugged a boy are questioning the principal’s decision to give their daughter detention.
“If administration can’t tell the difference between a friendly, ‘how you doing?’ hug and an inappropriate hug, then I think we have another big problem,” Kathy Fishbough, the mother of Ella, the student at Jackson Heights Middle School in Oviedo, Florida, tells WTSP.
The Seminole County School District bans public displays of affection, and the middle school’s policy goes further, banning holding hands, arm-linking and hugs. Detention is given after repeated offenses.
“It was literally for a second,” says Ella, in describing the hug to WKMG.
But it was the second incident for the 14-year-old, who her mother says had never previously been in trouble. She was given a warning when the boy put his hand on her head last month. She says she’s now afraid to touch anyone at school.
“The fact that my child decided to hug an other student who was not having a good day is a little unsettling to me that she is not able to console another classmate,” Kathy Fishbough says.
Hugging not banned district-wide, and WFTV in Orlando says the ban on public displays of affection is not consistently enforced.
