Listen, I dislike school as much as the next guy. I get up at 6:00 in the morning, and then I sleep again and wake up at 7:00. I’m dead tired, my brain isn’t functional, and I walk into school and see couples making out in the hallway. It’s as enjoyable as a pop quiz, but a pop quiz feels better to see in a classroom than two teenagers on top of each other. 

With that in mind, I’m issuing a North Creek PDA PSA, a “public display of affection” public service announcement. Love is love, and I respect the want to be with your partner all moments of the day, but there is such a thing as time and place. School is neither the time, nor the place. While high school might not be the best learning environment for everyone, it’s built to be one, and I don’t mean learning what your partner looks like under their shirt. 

Privacy is a privilege to most under the age of 18. Minors have an increased level of privacy protection under federal law, but some choose to make their private life so public that tearing your eyes away isn’t an option anymore. I, and a couple of my friends that I’ve spoken to about PDA, have agreed that it is not only an awful thing to see, but it’s a distraction. I’ve found myself in classes where it’s free work time and a couple has decided to cuddle in the corner rather than write their three day late English essay. As for me, I’m working on my calculus homework and trying not to hear the sweet nothings being whispered behind me.

And,= like I said earlier, I have nothing against love. I have nothing against showing affection towards your significant other, in fact I fully support it, just not when I look out the glass walls during a test. Yes, high school is a public setting but there’s a difference between canoodling in a school hallway and in the middle of the park, especially when we can’t leave high school. If I saw a couple fooling around at the Kirkland waterfront, I could just go to a different part of the beach. Students have to walk through a certain hallway to get to their next class. Students have to wait outside a classroom for their teacher to return in time. We can’t just leave.

There are many other places to show love towards each other. I will suggest a few: a public library, a Seahawks game, the corner of a movie theater, the park across from school, just not at school. It makes no one comfortable, and I find it hard to believe that it makes the couple comfortable. Why would you make the decision to portray your hands-on relationship to the entire student body in the hallway? I’m genuinely curious. I have never met someone in my life that has supported PDA in schools. Sure, a public park or a sunny day on the beach is perfect for a kiss or two, but a place where you are only there to challenge your brain and learn new material? There’s a reason it’s frowned upon by teachers and some will go the length to tell a couple to stop, as it makes them just as uncomfortable as anyone else in the room. 

I propose that we ban public displays of affection from the school grounds, and anyone who decides to break that rule should be proud to receive dirty looks from passerbys. We are at school to learn, to make friends, to form relationships, not act the private parts of it in front of other students, friends, and staff members.