zero tolerance..no touching in school!

Aerothorn on 20/6/2007 at 19:22

It was no accident on Thief13x's part. Most of his posts are like this. See "global warming as liberal conspiracy".

Paz on 20/6/2007 at 19:27

Quote Posted by jimjack

I could have thrown in P.C conservatives, rightist, facist policies. Good thing I didn't. Is Political Correctness part of the Liberals? Is it the teachers or the liberal agenda of teachers' unions and the school boards. Is there not a role parents should play in this?

I'm not fully sure what you're asking, but my point was broadly that this one school's decision is highly unlikely to stem from any specific political ideology. It's not as though Marx was writing about conduct in schools. Nor was JS Mill, nor was .. uh ... I dunno, who's cool in Conservative thought these days, Adam Smith? Hitchens? (he's a bit of a WACKY REBEL with a SHAMEFUL PAST so maybe not)

It appears to just be a lousy Principal trying to lay down a law which she'll quickly discover is impossible to uphold. I don't know anything about the lady, so whether it stems from her wanting to be ridiculously over-protective (the "liberal" angle) or from a terrifying fear of intimacy (the "conservative" one), I can't say. Maybe she's just not very bright.

I guess parents, teachers, unions - anyone who could see this as silly really, might be able to CHIP IN and try to get it changed. But it'll probably collapse on its own anyway.

Again, this is my view based only on that AP snippet - which I doubt gives a full, clear picture.

The press are probably only reporting it to get the reaction of "OH THOSE DAMN LIBERALS/CONSERVATIVES WHAT WILL THEY STOP OUR KIDS DOING NEXT, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THIS WORLD OF OURS OH WOE" which seems to be in vogue at the moment.

Quote Posted by jimjack

Yes. It's all about not groping, just being in the right place at an opportune time.

This is kinda creepy dude.

DaveW on 20/6/2007 at 21:14

Jasee, "fingering" isn't classified as sex - so I doubt the usual rules would apply anyway. But as fas as I'm aware, if you're both underage no action is taken, and you have to be over 2 years older than her if she's under 16. So a 15 and 16 year old could have sex and it wouldn't be classed as paedophilia. But I'm not entirely sure on this either.

Edit: Nope, I'm completely wrong. There's some stuff on the UK age-of-consent laws (http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/A/adultat14/consent/aoc_debate.shtml) here.

Aerothorn on 20/6/2007 at 21:55

And here I was, thinking the English were more sane/less conflicted about their sexuality than Americans.

DaveW on 20/6/2007 at 22:06

The likelihood of that being enforced is very small, though.

mopgoblin on 20/6/2007 at 23:00

Quote Posted by scumble

That's not entirely correct either. Many conservatives advocate personal freedom[...]

Yeah, that's one of the things I was talking about. In particular, a desire to protect existing freedoms can naturally be aligned with both liberalism and conservatism.

Quote:

[...]and many Liberals would support authoritarian "nanny-state" intervention.

I was talking about liberals, not Liberals. The former is related to the general ideology, the latter to specific political parties and similar groups using the name. Some of those parties might not be very liberal at all, just like a country can have "Democratic Republic" or the like in its name without actually being democratic. There's not much sensible overlap between liberalism and authoritarianism - anyone with significant authoritarian policy, particularly regarding personal freedoms, can not reasonably be said to have a liberal ideology.

Ghostly Apparition on 20/6/2007 at 23:31

Quote Posted by Aerothorn

It was no accident on Thief13x's part. Most of his posts are like this. See "global warming as liberal conspiracy".

yeah, I get the feeling he maybe gets this extreme republican/conservative viewpoint from his parents and just spouts it out from time to time without really
thinking about the issue at hand.

jimjack on 20/6/2007 at 23:52

I shouldn't have thrown in those political parties. The issue here isn't something that should be politicized but identified and overturned. It's also probably absurd to blame this bullshit on Political Correctness. In spite of what I might have stated otherwise..But education has decreased and stupid rules enforced so nobody can sue. You can make up vapid rules, enforcing them is another matter. It seems its not up to the students or the parents to decide what rules the schools can have..so who actually passes them in the end?

Quote Posted by Paz

This is kinda creepy dude.

Not really. Unless you're like rubbing your crotch on somebody and panting down their neck. Try not to make any contact with someone when your personal space is limited due to mass crowding. I'm just saying it makes it kind of tolerable in a non-creepy way. Hey I'm sixteen, it's not like I'm the school custodian getting swept along with the heated masses.

User123abc on 21/6/2007 at 00:11

Quote Posted by DaveW

The likelihood of that being enforced is very small, though.

There's no doubt about that. But a law is supposed to represent what the greatest number of people think is good or just. It operates on the assumption that the most ideal world would be attained when it's moral guidelines are taken as absolutes (meaning 100% enforcement). So what does such a law say about a country and its people? I mean how sick is that, that someone is telling you that it's wrong to consummate what is otherwise a totally healthy relationship (meaning, no age gap)?

Besides, if anyone here frequents digg or reddit, you've probably heard about the Genarlow Wilson trial. It's not totally unenforcable. But maybe it's not a bad thing. If people can still think straight, this case might result in some change.

Ghostly Apparition - my point exactly.

By the way, about the labels....

Some people use a two dimensional plane as opposed to a linear spectrum. Meaning, a liberal viewpoint is understood as one that tends to favor more economic control, but at the same time less social control. A conservative viewpoint is understood as the opposite. A libertarian viewpoint is understood as one that favors less economic control, as well as less social control. A totalitarian (is there a less "loaded" term?) viewpoint is understood as the opposite of that.

With this understanding (which I think is a bit more accurate as to real world opinions and theories), I can't see how the world liberal would have any connection to the motivations of the school.

DaveW on 21/6/2007 at 00:13

Quote Posted by jimjack

It seems its not up to the students or the parents to decide what rules the schools can have..so who actually passes them in the end?

The school? I'm pretty sure they can just introduce rules like this without the need of parental support (although a strong backlash could cause them to rethink it, but I don't think they're 'required' to).