PDA: What’s the Big Deal?
Christine Kirby
March 4, 2013
Filed under Life
In our school there are quite a few couples who are not shy about showing affection. They hug, hold hands, and maybe sneak a kiss or two, but when do these Public Displays of Affection become excessive?
According to an interview in an article from CNN, “‘[PDA] in moderation, and in the right venue [is] fine. PDA beyond the hand-holding, arm-around-the-waist, closed-mouth-kiss type is out of order.’” Another person also interviewed by CNN said, “‘Extreme PDA — just makes the couple look incredibly immature…’ In other words: keep it PG-rated.” However, our school regulations may have a different opinion of what “PDA in moderation” is.
Susana and Benny (a junior and senior at KING) say that the rules for PDA are enforced and students will receive a 3 hour detention if they get caught, but luckily students get a warning first. Neither Susana nor Benny have trouble with waiting until after school to show affection for each other. Teachers often give people showing affection ‘the look’ and oftentimes that is enough to scare students into keeping their hands off of each other for a while. Susana and Benny have been a couple for a while at KING and they both agree that relationships can work without having to show affection at school all the time. Susana personally said, “Just don’t do it at school.”
With a similar opinion, Stephanie Reed a current junior at KING, said, “I don’t think we have a lot [of PDA], but I do see it sometimes.” Teachers at this school are supposed to take the rules seriously and enforce them, but is it possible that teachers take it too far? According to Stephanie Reed, that does happen sometimes: “Sometimes they try to break them [couples] up, but sometimes they try to embarrass them and I think that’s wrong, because it isn’t something they should be embarrassed about.” Overall Stephanie feels that there is no need to complain about the level of PDA at our school and that displaying affection is okay as long as it’s appropriate.
PDA can be taken as a joke to students, but it is a serious thing to staff here at KING. Both Malaysia Joseph and Lance Gibbs talk about teachers taking PDA too seriously. “If they touch you too long, they [teachers] say ‘oh that’s PDA.’
On the other hand, Rosemarie Vazquez, a sophomore, says that there really isn’t a lot of PDA during school, but after basketball games, people take advantage of the darkness and absence of a lot teachers.
Overall, during school, PDA is under control. Yet after school, maybe teachers have the right to be strict about PDA. Like Stephanie Reed said, “Displaying affection isn’t something to be ashamed of, but when your affection turns to making out, the public doesn’t want to see that.”
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