College students told to curb 'unacceptable' hugging

Youngsters at a community college have been asked by their headteacher to hug each other less - but he denied today he had imposed a ban.

Hugging has become "very unacceptable" among students, said Callington Community College headteacher Steve Kenning.

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Mr Kenning said girls were taking too much time to get to lessons because they were hugging each other.

But local councillor Kath Pascoe, who has two teenage grandsons at the 1,250-pupil Cornish college, said today: "Better hugging than fighting."

There had been complaints from students about inappropriate hugging, and he added: "It was going on too often and people were abusing it.

"The school has not banned it, however, it is being discouraged, and we are asking students to cut out anything unnecessary and only hug when they need to hug."

He told the Plymouth-based Western Morning News that when the reasons behind the request were explained to students "they were fine with it."

Mr Kenning issued a statement saying hugging had not been banned and it was a "non issue."

Mrs Pascoe, Caradon district councillor for Callington, said: "There were one or two complaints about hugging, one or two did not want it."

She said her grandson had told her he thought the issue was "no big deal" and she described it as "a bit of a storm in a teacup."