Thankfully, most (but not all) of the readers who posted comments were able to see through the hype. There's nothing sinister about reinforcing a friendship with a hug. I remember a few years back, I met up for lunch with a friend who had lived in Paris for years. As we walked home from the restaurant, she took my arm. I remember realizing how relaxing and reassuring that kind of physical contact can be.

I wouldn't really call it a trend at all, since I've notice this going on ever since my daughter was in preschool. Sure, it's now happening in middle school, but these kids didn't just start doing it last week or something.

My first favorite part in the New York Times article:

“It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,” wrote Beth J. Harpaz, the mother of two boys, 11 and 16, and a parenting columnist for The Associated Press, in a new book, “13 Is the New 18.”

“And there doesn’t seem to be any other overt way in which they acknowledge knowing each other,” she continued, describing the scene at her older son’s school in Manhattan. “No hi, no smile, no wave, no high-five — just the hug. Witnessing this interaction always makes me feel like I am a tourist in a country where I do not know the customs and cannot speak the language.”

Has this woman never hugged anyone? And she's a "parenting" columnist?

And then there's this shocker:

The prevalence of boys’ nonromantic hugging (especially of other boys) is most striking to adults.

Good god call out the priests, those boys might get Teh Gay!! What's next on this avalanche of depravity, horror comic books? Rock 'n' roll?

Of course, all these students might just be expressing some actual warmth and compassion and friendship, and as we all know most public schools simply cannot tolerate that.

onion worthy.

Why can't they just go back to bringing weapons to school and attacking each other instead?

Your lawn. We'll get off it.

The crassness of this post, and the comments, are striking.

For a teenager with surging hormones, being able to hug is a very big deal. Imagine feeling the mounds of that lusted-after girl's breasts, the whiff of her perfume, her soft neck against your nose.

For a teenage boy stuck in what has been called "the guy code", the change to a culture where boys hug each other is very significant.

"If kids started stuffing napkins in their pockets and really liked it, they'd pass ordinances against that, too."

I love that Obama gives a little cheek kiss to female colleagues (like Hillary). I think George W did the same, to his credit.

And every time I want to read something that sounds like it's from an introductory college theory course I read Broadsheet. The hugging article was in the Times' Style section so I think by now that savvy readers know to take anything from there with a grain a salt and just enjoy its non-researched-ness.

I graduate high school in 2004, and I'm pretty sure people engaged in lascivious and frequent hugging back then, too. It was nice--we liked that if we were having a shitty day (as many, many teenagers do), we could get a little affectionate pick-me-up from friends in the halls. Sure beats sneaking guns into school and shooting people, right?

Teens need all the support, affection, and kindness they can find. Hug away, kids! It's good for you.

As if being in middle school did not suck enough, now school authorities seek to take the last vestiges of healthy, appropriate comfort away from students. What dour small mindedness! This does nothing but reinforce the stereotype of school principles as joyless, dried-up, old sticks.

@captcrisis, I hugged my friends male and female alike in middle school, I also hugged the guys I secretly crushed on. Sure, it made me giddy and a little more lovesick. It was also delicious. I still made it to my next class and was able to focus well enough to maintain excellent grades. Same goes for my crushes.

Longtime readers of Ms. Kershaw and the NYT Style section can connect the dots. When a suffering economy sends men back home to do women's work, children suffer too. Are they really to blame for all these "innocent" touching games when living rooms are overrun with Mr. Moms "wrestling" and "tickling" the kids? C'mon people, let's not be naive.

This country is seriously lacking in "initiation" rites.

If two adult men can hug each other in public without causing an outcry, I think kids should have the same level of freedom.

But where do you draw the line between "adult" and "child" anymore?

I propose that we begin ritual branding of youngsters when they reach the ALL IMPORTANT AGE of 21. (As a BS reader, I know there are lots of women still being victimized after 21, so maybe push the age a bit higher for them.)

A nice big red X on the forehead of all "adults" would let us know whether the hug we're seeing is an "acceptable" hug between consenting adults, or an "improper" hug between kids of 14, 18, 20...whatever, so we can take the proper steps.

Will the horror never end?

What's next--teens will revive the petticoat and begin flashing sensuous ankles at each other so the NYT can tut tut?

Oh the humanity!!!!

Not only is this fake outrage over something so utterly benign that it makes a parody of itself, it's not even a new story. I've heard it before - a couple of times now. Is the news so slow and editors' memories so short that one could actually recycle something like this for the New York Farking Times and get away with it? Way to phone it in, I say. I guess the NYT is anxious to shed its title as the newspaper of record - too much pressure or whatever.

The world is going to heck in a handbasket, and even kids feel alienated- OF COURSE they're reaching out for even basic love and affection! why not?

Heck, I'm in my mid twenties and I can't remember the last time I shook someone's hand or anything- everyone hugs. I love that it's become socially acceptable, even with new people. I guess the trend got to us too? lol.

I understand schools not wanting to be sued... but I think that's more a comment on our litigiously paranoid culture- nothing matters in reality, only what you can be sued for. stupid.

Interestingly, I was doing Free Hugs on my grad school campus last year (you stand around in a group with signs that say Free Hugs and hug whoever wants to) with a big group. Within an hour the campus police made us disperse, saying the school could be sued for sexual harassment if anyone thought we were 'aggressive' about it. I guess they're not the only lame ones around. (Anyone in Philly- there's Free Hugs-ing most Sunday afternoons in Rittenhouse Park by the kids who do Lindy and Blues dance classes :)