School officials want students to stop the bumping, grinding and groping, officially making “unsuitable, intimate, sexually suggestive behavior” forbidden on school campuses, school buses or during school-sponsored activities.
The restrictions were put under the “disruptive behavior” section of the student code of conduct. Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy said it gives principals, assistant principals, and deans another way to stop inappropriate contact.
“This is meant to give more support to administrators when they need to deal with any situation involving (public display of affection) that is particularly disruptive,” Kennedy said.
There are different levels of discipline to deal with the PDA, beginning with contacting the student’s parents up to the out-of-school suspension.
District officials did not say if one incident preceded the stronger language in the code. They also did not specify what constitutes a disruptive public display of affection, if it included hand-holding or a quick smooch hello or goodbye.
School Board member Billy Townsend said students are inclined to show affection just as much now as when he was in school, also in the 1980s, but he defers to the staff’s rationale in adding this language to the code.
“I hope we’ll use common sense,” Townsend said. “If we find it becomes an enforcement problem, we’ll rethink it.”
Townsend said that kids today are far more sexually responsible than they were during his school days.
“Go watch 16 Candles and tell me how sexually responsible our generation was,” Townsend said, citing an implied date rape scene at the end of the movie.