What People Really Feel About PDA

February is known as the month of love, but is PDA really necessary in the hallways of LB? Many students and teachers think PDA is okay to a certain extent but going over that limit makes a lot of students uncomfortable. In the school environment a certain amount of respect for the situation and for the students and faculty should be shown.  

PDA is an abbreviation for public display of affection, the key word being public.

“I think that it’s school, and you want to be professional as a student,” math teacher Tristan Kissell said. “And you don’t want to let teachers see you a certain way.”

There is a line that couples shouldn’t cross.

“I guess making out and stuff like that is really excessive, and I think there is a point,” senior Gaby Varela said. “But like small things I think are okay, but don’t over do it at school.”

Varela admits to being shy when it comes to PDA so she limits it to hand holding, hugging and sometimes a kiss on the cheek.

It may seem like students and teachers are against PDA, but most have said it is okay until a point.

“I don’t really think it’s necessary, like if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend and you guys kiss then it’s like no big deal, but like a full fledged make out is a little much,” junior Nyema Wilson said.

In school the hallways are the main areas where PDA is seen the most, but students often see it when they’re least expecting it.

“I’ve like ran into couples that thought they were alone, but they were not,” Varela said.

The stairs and less populated areas of the school are examples of where couples think they are alone.

“Right outside my classroom is a lot of PDA because it’s the senior hallway,” Kissell said.

But PDA infects students of all ages.

“Underclassmen are more immature about how they handle themselves in the hallways because they can’t see each other outside of school as much, since they can’t drive,” freshmen Sophia Wann said.

Students and teachers have said PDA is okay to a certain extent but their feelings on PDA have a limit.

“It’s kind of weird,” senior Ben Bilbro said. ‘Kissing you do that at home.”

Teachers agree that students should keep their business in private not at school.

“I like people who can limit their PDA because it shows they see the responsibility toward others and [are] empathetic to other people’s feelings,” Kissell said.

Being in love is okay, but making others feel uncomfortable isn’t very respectful to others or to themselves.

“Some couples hold onto each other like it’s the last goodbye, like they can see them after class is over. I don’t understand,” junior Roberto Gutierrez said.

It is fine to be in a relationship. They are a part of life, but do it in a respectful and empathetic relationship.

“I think it’s having respect for oneself and respect for others and the surrounding environment,”  history teacher Ashley Ytzen said, “not everybody wants to see that, not everybody culturally accepts teenagers in that means. So me personally and me as a teacher, I would step in if I saw something what I felt was crossing the line.”