Pro: Students should learn how to behave in real world

Teachers and administrators at Federal Way High School planned this month to begin ticketing students for public displays of affection and profanity. The penalty is a writing assignment.

Two Our Generation writers offer their opposing assessments of the new rule imposed in the school south of Seattle.

Any respectable adult (or teen, for that matter) would be shocked by a single passing period at Joe Average High School. While one might relegate stereotypes of violent, crude, sex-crazed students to media images, they could be based in fact.

Many times, I have shoved aside "loving" (ahem) couples in the hallway in my attempts to make it to physics class on time. I then walk determinedly to class while loudly humming John Phillip Sousa in a pathetic attempt to ignore the foul-mouthed discussion going on behind me.

In all honesty, my school isn't all that bad when it comes to PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) and swearing. But in Federal Way, Wash., such behavior has prompted a ban on kissing and swearing on high school grounds. Obviously, this will cause some controversy among those whom it directly affects. Students who limit their affections to hand holding and brief smooches may find themselves targets of the new rule and object to the breadth of this crackdown.

While prohibiting all contact between students of the opposite sex may sound drastic, in order for anything to be done, the rule must be absolute. It might make sense to prohibit "overly intimate oral contact" in schools since, theoretically, a quick peck goodbye can't do too much harm. But where is the line to be drawn? To fairly enforce this rule, administrators would have to closely monitor student "activities." Certainly, that idea would be more violently objected to than the idea of a moratorium on all kissing.

Banning obscene speech raises a similar point. While I doubt school officials will draft a list of unacceptable words, reprimands for generally unsavory language are well deserved. The rights of the speaker should be observed, but what about those who are forced to listen? The right of one person to spew a string of expletives surely trespasses on the rights of the many in the vicinity who don't want to hear it. To outlaw swearing is truly to act in the best interest of the majority.

Certainly, everyone has the right to free speech. One can say how much he loves his girlfriend or express dissatisfaction with the school system, but does it need to be so in-your-face? How many businesses allow employees to swear at customers when they get angry? I imagine fewer still allow making out on the workplace floor.

The issue is one of common civility, which should apply to customers and fellow students alike.

School is not the real world (thank goodness for that). It should, however, prepare students for life beyond age 18. Respect cannot be taught with a textbook, but it can be shown by example. This is the only realistic way to teach students the difference between private and social behavior.

Like it or not, it needs to be learned.

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