1-Second Hug Lands Florida Girl in Detention

Runaway hormones and the middle school years might go together like chocolate and peanut butter, but that doesn’t mean all physical contact between kids at school should be off limits.

At least that’s the contention of an Oviedo mother after her 14-year-old eighth-grader was ordered to serve a day in detention.

Her crime? She gave a male friend who was having a bad day a quick hug.

“It was literally for a second,” Ella told Click Orlando.

That second was all it took for school administrators to take notice, prompting them to declare that Ella had violated the Physical Display of Affection (PDA) policy, several media outlets have reported.

Ella’s mom, Kathy Fishbough, says the policy goes too far. Hoping to fight back, Fishbough shared her daughter’s story with the media.

“It is a little unsettling to me that she’s not able to console another classmate,” Kathy said in a video interview.

The Seminole County School District has since issued a statement that its policy bans inappropriate touching, not necessarily hugging. Principals, however, are given the leeway to interpret the rules as they see fit, which means at Ella’s Jackson Heights Middle School, the rules include no hand holding, no arm linking, no kissing and no hugging.

Kathy told Click Orlando she posed a hypothetical question to school officials about the ban. She wanted to know if Ella would get in trouble if something happened in the family and Ella and her cousin, who attends the school, gave each other a hug. Would the two get in trouble? The answer was yes, Kathy said.

Ella is scheduled to serve detention on Friday.

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