pupils protest at school ban of hugs & high-5s

Interesting times....


Pupils at a Mornington Peninsula primary school have staged a protest on their school oval after they were banned from hugging or giving each other high-fives in a move blasted as "outrageous" and "unbelievable" by parents.

The Year 6 students at Mount Martha Primary School were so disgusted by the new rule that they staged a sit-down protest on the school oval at lunch yesterday before they were moved to the school gym and given a dressing down, parents say.

Parents claim they were not told directly of the new rule, which extended a ban on contact sports to a ban on any physical contact at all, such as playing "tiggy", hugging or giving each other high-fives.
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Once more with feeling ... Students at Mount Martha Primary School flout the hugging ban today. Photo: Penny Stephens
They claim the new rule was explained to pupils over the public address system, and students were left to tell their parents.

One parent, Tracey, said her son was winded on the playground yesterday and, when his friend tried to console him by putting his arm around his shoulder, the friend was told his actions were against the rules.

The friend then had to walk around with the teacher on playground duty for the rest of lunch as punishment, Tracey told radio 3AW.

"I'm just a bit outraged that it has come to this. There must be other ways," Tracey said.

Another parent, John, said his children were told they could not high-five each other.

"I have a couple of children, and they have been told that if they high-five one another that's instant detention, and if they do it three times they will be expelled," John told 3AW."I mean, what are they actually trying to teach?"

One child was reportedly told that if students wanted to high-five, it would have to be an "air high-five".
Principal Judy Beckworth said it was "not actually a policy, it's a practice that we've adopted in the short-term as a no-contact games week".

She said the new practice was introduced yesterday after students suffered a number of injuries on the playground in recent weeks, and the new no-touching rule was only due to last for one week.

However one parent, Nicole, claimed that the school was backpedalling because some parents were told by the school that the new rule would be in place for a minimum of three weeks, which would be extended if the children did not behave themselves.

"It's not a policy as such. It's in response to an increased number of recent student injuries which include broken wrists, broken collar bone, concussion to a student in and around about a week," Ms Beckworth told 3AW.

"It's a practice that we've adopted to raise the awareness that it's unacceptable to play roughly in the playground."
She said when the children were told of the new rule, some of them asked about high-fiving to clarify the rule.
"We spoke about it being contact, but of course that's something that children really would find that would be acceptable, and I will be talking to my staff about that, chatting with them about trying to get the message across," Ms Beckworth said.

Ms Beckworth said the protesting Year 6 students were removed from the oval yesterday because they had overstayed their allotted time.

When they demanded to speak to someone, the assistant principal addressed them in the school gym.
"I understand what he spoke to them about was that ... there are appropriate ways of expressing their opinion," Ms Beckworth said.

"We have a lot of respect for our students and he spoke to them about the way to go about that."
She said parents would be told of the new rule in this week's school newsletter this week.
The Age has contacted the school for comment.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/touch-too-much-pupils-protest-at-school-ban-on-contact-20120614-20bnb.html#ixzz1xjfVXd8u


Shonan Trader