Since the kids won’t touch each other properly, don’t let them touch at all. Culver City Middle School acknowledges that its “no contact” policy, in which students are banned from any physical contact with one another, is written nowhere in the school’s documents but is nevertheless enforced. In an attempt to prevent bullying, brawls, and harassment among the school’s 1,739 students, the school forbids hugging, hand holding, and kissing on its premises. Is the program working?  Maybe. And sort of. Students complain about uneven enforcement of the rule, and as Paul Chung, UCLA assistant professor of pediatrics and staffer at the UCLA/Rand Center for Adolescent Health Promotion, states: “When you’re trying to extinguish a behavior, the trick is to be absolutely consistent so that every time the behavior is experienced, they get knocked down…. They know they’re never going to get away with it.”

It would be a boon if the unofficial “no touch” prescription eliminated harassment and bullying, but it seems to be coming at a sinister, in addition to somewhat inconsistent, price.  

Mimi Hanaoka