Parting from your significant other is such a hardship that some feel the need to share a dramatic goodbye. Displaying your relationship to the rest of the school is not necessary. How much is too much?
The most asked questions amongst the halls of Woodland Regional High School are concerning the topic of the public display of affection, commonly referred to as PDA. After witnessing some sort of public display of affection, it makes it hard to differentiate where to draw the line. The line could be: duration.
Robert Murdy, Psychology teacher, shared his thoughts on PDA, explaining, “public displays of affection in school does not create a warm environment for students to learn in, especially if they are not comfortable.”
Murdy then agreed, duration can complicate the social standards of public displays of affection.
After asking students, who attend Woodland about their thoughts on PDA, majority said, “it makes me feel uncomfortable”.
When asking one particular student their thoughts on public displays of affection she said that when she witnesses “excessive touching and groping” she begins to feel uncomfortable.
This response was the outlier of all the other collected surveys, but could be an accurate representation of what occurs in the halls of Woodland. Although some may have answered in a rational and realistic matter, most students did not answer seriously nor appropriately. If the students who witness PDA first-hand could not answer the questions asked in a serious manner- it can be argued that the PDA in itself should not be taken seriously.
After speaking to Woodland Regionals’ principal, Kurt Ogren he mentioned that, “in a public school anything above holding hands, is inappropriate.”
Ogren then went on to say that when he sees couples in the hallway doing anything above holding hands- such as kissing he would ‘’let them know in a nice way that there is a time and a place for what they are doing, and the halls of Woodland Regional High School is, not it.”
Principle Ogren finished his views on the topic by saying, “If I witness PDA, I feel the need to address it 100% of the time, and usually I will pull them into my office and ask if they had been a witness of somebody else displaying PDA, how would it make them feel? I like to give them a chance to see it through somebody else’s eyes.”
Alumni, Jessica Rodriguez said, “If you don’t feel comfortable in the hallways of a public school there is a problem that needs to be fixed,” after witnessing PDA in the high school for the past four years.
This then arises the question of: If majority agrees excessive PDA is a problem- how do we fix it?
Enforcing rules that forbids affection may only make the accused more inclined to do so.
It is important to remember where you are and who is around you before you show Public Displays of Affection in a school environment, if you wouldn’t want to see it- don’t do it.
