The school policy, enacted last year by the principal and vice principal, prompted one seventh grade student to make a formal appeal.

“Sometimes they really need a hug and I didn’t think it was fair for me to not give my friend a hug,” student Desha Eaves said.

The rule was enacted to improve classroom and school management, middle school principal Bob Espenel said.

“You’d have groups of 10 to 15 kids and they all had to hug each other before they went to class. It was getting out of hand,” Espenel said. “…This is not the Love Boat.”

The excessive hugging slowed down traffic in the halls between classes.

“We had a huge percentage of students who were tardy to class and the hugging was part of the reason,” Espenel said.

Rather than simply griping to her friends about the no hugging rule, Eaves took matters into her own hands. She approached Espenel with her request to lift the ban and wrote a letter to the school board.

“Kids still hug no matter what the rules say, but what’s the point of getting in trouble for something that’s not that big of a deal?” Eaves said. “I want to be able to be social with my friends.”

Espenel does not have any firm data on whether the hugging ban has decreased student tardiness, but said it does give students one less excuse to be late for class.

Besides the issue of clogging up the halls and taking up school time, Espenel said not all students were comfortable receiving hugs from classmates, but would not necessarily have the courage to speak up.

“We’ve had some students also that are victims of abuse and often when people are hugging and grabbing it can make them uncomfortable,” Espenel said. “We want to respect those students and make school a safe place for them.”

The MRSD board discussed the issue at their work session last Thursday.

“At this point we feel like it can be dealt with at that middle school level,” MRSD board chair Karyn Gibbons said. “(Eaves and Espenel) are going to get together and talk about what they feel is a rational solution.”

Espenel said he was not likely to lift the hugging ban, but appreciated how Eaves handled the situation.