New York Times Explores the Menace of Teenage Hugging

The New York Times is on it: kids hugging in school. For teens, "hugging is hip," says reporter Sarah Kershaw, who we think wrote this story as part of a hazing ceremony. "We're not afraid, we just get in and hug," said Danny Schneider, a junior at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey. "The high-five is, like, boring," says a no doubt drugged-up kid at an "Alternative School" in free-loving San Francisco. But some uptight grownups have banned hugging! "It was needless hugging," explains the principal of a junior high school in Hillsdale. Experts are consulted! "The boundaries of touch have changed in American culture," says a sociologist at George Mason University. The mystery of the African-American "dap" is explored, my brother. Facebook is implicated: "They don't even have human contact anymore," says a mother. Sigh. We miss rainbow parties.