BERIGAN Posted April 8, 2006 Report Share Posted April 8, 2006 Glad to see such brutal thugs are punished at an early age.... Girl, 5, Forced To Apologize For Hugging Classmate Parents Looking For New School For Girl POSTED: 6:02 pm EDT April 5, 2006 UPDATED: 7:59 pm EDT April 5, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story MAYNARD, Mass. -- A family in Maynard is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her. NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Brenda Brier and Michael Marino pulled their daughter, Savannah, out of school early Wednesday. The couple was angry after a meeting with officials at the Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, where Savannah is in kindergarten. At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me." "She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said. "I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around -- that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said. School Superintendent Mark Masterson told NewsCenter 5 there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor." The superintendent said the school reported "one girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened." Savannah said she did not lift her classmate off the ground. "They're trying to accuse her now, basically," Brier said. Savannah's parents said it should have never gone this far, and want an apology from the school. The family said they are so upset they'll start looking for a new school for their daughter to attend. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/consumer/8491575/detail.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vajerzy Posted April 8, 2006 Report Share Posted April 8, 2006 Where's Sophie's parents in all of this?? I'd like to hear their side of it. My daughter's in kindergarten and while I'm surprised how things have changed since I've gone to kindergarten......thankfully the school doesn't have rules this extreme- or I hope so.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 Frightening stuff. My twins are still in preschool, where affection for each other is still allowed, but they'll start kindergarten in the fall. I'm one of those parents who's always on the ground playing with the kids; most of them know and call me by name ("Hey, Ray, gimme five"), and some even want to hug me or have me lift them up, etc. I know most of the parents, too, and while I'm not too concerned about anything being considered "improper," there's always that nagging doubt in the back of your mind telling you not to touch any of the other kids or do or say anything to them that could get you in trouble. I'm not sure if it's political correctness gone wild, the fear of litigation, or some wacked child-rearing philosophy (and there are several of those!), but it's way too easy these days for totally innocent behavior to be misconstrued as harmful. It's one thing to teach kids to be wary of strangers; it's quite another to make them paranoid for life. Somewhat off the point, I know. There seems more to this story that they're not telling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 When I was in First grade, a cute little girl named Cathy & I got sent to the principal's office (and given the 3rd degree once there) for a quick little kiss we shared at the water fountain. That was nuts, and this is too. Fear and ignorance go hand in hand, and the bigger one gets, so goes the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BB) Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 Since we let our daughter bring her .357 Magnum to kindergarden she has stopped having problems with all those nasty little "huggers" that seem to be everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 The kids at my daughter's kindergarten hug all the time. I think it's sweet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 The kids at my daughter's kindergarten hug all the time. I think it's sweet... There seems to be a huge fear these days of contact of any kind between not just children, but everybody. I'm a hugger, because my family were huggers and their friends were huggers too. There is nothing like a hug to make you feel all secure and fuzzy inside. It has been shown in many studies that people who don't show affection, or aren't shown affection, particularly in their formative years, fade away emotionally. Demonstating affection by hugging someone is so far away from improper conduct as to be on a different plane entirely. As for fear of child-molesting, the "bathing suit" guidelines worked for my girls when they were little. A hug is good. The rule was that being touched where a one-piece bathing suit would cover is suspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonym Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 Fear and ignorance go hand in hand, and the bigger one gets, so goes the other. Nail hit firmly on head. I worked in a children's day nursery for a couple of years and you see all sorts of behaviour being exhibited; from boys 'shooting' each other with guns they've fashioned from Lego, girls attempting to plait each others hair, kids of both sexes using the toy 'doctors and nurses' kits to "mend" each other and, at story time, you'd notice occasionally a hand-in-hand. None of this was sinister or cause for concern. Isn't affection and expression to be encouraged? What's bothering me now is that are we the minority? The ones with a modicum of common sense and human nature or is it that the decent majority are being worked over by a few zealots? I dread to think sometimes what sort of world my little boy will grow up in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catesta Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 "Dear Teacher and class , I'm sorry for being a kid" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted April 9, 2006 Report Share Posted April 9, 2006 "Dear Teacher and class , I'm sorry for being a kid" Or for feeling genuine affection for those who care for me and for whom I care, wanting to hug and be hugged. It's normal, social, human behaviour that is to be encouraged, not made to seem somehow sinister. This is just craziness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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