By Rylee Mathis Posted December 12, 2012
We can all agree that there is a reasonable amount of affection people can show each other in public and an unreasonable amount. But for some people, like teachers and bitter singles, the line between the two is very thin.
Recently I was scolded by a teacher for giving my boyfriend a peck on the lips. The woman who scolded me claimed she’d been married 21 years and had never kissed her husband in public. If half the girls at this school can walk around with their butts hanging out of their booty shorts, I think I should be able to hug my boyfriend without all the dirty looks and rude comments.
Multiple times, friends have even shouted ‘get a room’ to us when we’re just standing close together. I’m sure most of them are just teasing, but it gets annoying. People like that are prudes.
Granted, it’s different for the people in the relationship compared to the people outside of it. But I don’t think hugging and closed-mouth kissing is so inappropriate that you shouldn’t be able to do it at school.
The rule in our planners is that any affection beyond hand-holding will be addressed, even hugging for too long. Mrs. Watts said that if she allowed kissing (which she does not consider appropriate) and whatnot, students would be tempted to push the limits and do things beyond kissing. My opinion on that is if you respect yourself or your partner at all, you shouldn’t try to do those other things in public. Some things are really meant to be kept private; sometimes they shouldn’t even be done at all.
I don’t expect Mrs. Watts or any other person running a school to change the rule in the handbook to ‘kissing is allowed’; I just think teachers should save their breath when they see it. It’s pretty much harmless up to a certain point.
The real problem is that while I’m getting in trouble for simply kissing someone, there are couples that suck face in the hallways between classes and boys putting their hands up girls’ dresses at the dances. Shouldn’t these problems be addressed first?
As a student, I try to make my way from one class to another without causing any inconvenience to anyone else, so it’s got to mean something when I, of all people, notice a couple being inappropriate in the halls. One thing is for sure, I’m a lot more tolerant of public displays of affection than the authority figures at this school, so while teachers walk around searching for that kind of stuff, why aren’t they seeing what I’m seeing?
It seems like the people who need to tone it down the most are the ones who aren’t getting in trouble and vice versa. All I can say is: it’s a different time; try to be more tolerant.
