Teachers, students agree that enough is enough

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BY NICK MOORE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

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Reading, writing and romance? Not inside these school walls.

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While the drama of dating and relationships have long been standard inside the classrooms, cafeterias and hallways of many high schools far and wide, that doesn't mean it's welcomed -- by either school administrators or fellow students.

It isn't so much the idea of students having relationships that has people irked, but rather when these relationships spill over to become P.D.A.'s (better known as public displays of affection).

Making out in the halls just before the first morning bell rings, a hickey following history class or holding hands at the lockers are big no-no's at Caledonia Regional High School in Hillsborough. Principal Belinda Myers said P.D.A.'s such as kissing, hugging or holding hands are strictly forbidden on school property.

"This is reviewed to our students at the beginning of the school year," said Myers. "Students will recognize that public displays of affection, inappropriate in the work setting, are also inappropriate in a school setting."

Myers said it's the job of the school and its administrators to prepare students for the work place of the real world, and that includes teaching them behaviour which is appropriate and behaviour which isn't.

"That's the main thing we should be training our students for," she said. "They're not just here to learn, they're here to learn how to behave appropriately in certain professional settings."

"It has to do with how they dress, it has to do with how they behave towards other people whether they like them or not and it has to do with whether or not they hold hands. You don't hold hands in a work setting, you don't kiss in a work setting and you don't do that here."

Myers said to that respect, a lot of these guidelines come down to simple common sense of what's appropriate and what's not. The general rule of thumb: if you wouldn't do it at work, don't do it at school.

Meaghan MacDougall, a 15-year-old at Moncton High School, agreed that schools should be taking a stance against P.D.A.'s at school

"I think the rules are fair," said MacDougall. "Some people do it too excessively and nobody else really wants to see that."

"It shouldn't be out in the public like that."

Meaghan agrees with the goal of making the classrooms and school hallways P.D.A. free, just as it would be in most every other work environment. She has walked down hallways before where all she can do is roll her eyes at some of her fellow student's exhibitionist-type behaviour.

"It doesn't really send a good message," said MacDougall, as far as P.D.A.'s at school. "It's more of a professional environment."

Even when schools encourage students to cut it a little lose at extra-curricular events, the no P.D.A. rule is still in effect. Principal Myers said students are well aware of where the rule extends to, adding the P.D.A. rule extends to school dances at her school. On the flip side, a number of high schools in the Halifax area stopped organizing school dances in 2006 because students were dancing too suggestively. Myers said it hasn't been a problem at her school.

As for the consequences for students breaking the no-P.D.A. rule, Myers said schools typically don't have a one-rule-fits-all approach but instead treat situations on a case-by-case basis.

"It's very much individual, based on the age of the student and what exactly they're doing," she said. "I don't throw kids out of school for holding hands. But all of our staff are very quick to address it."

"We have in the past had to hold what I call 'couple meeting," where we sit down with couples to discuss their behaviour so they understand clearly what we're going to allow and what we're not going to allow."