The logic behind prohibiting teacher-student touching

Anon User writes "The paper Risk anxiety in the classroom: teachers touching children explores the logic behind the idea that teacher-to-student touching (no matter how "innocent") must be considered suspiciously and must be avoided. (Without mentioning gender, it should be quite obvious that teachers of a certain gender have to be more careful about this...) There is the issue of avoiding false accusations, but the authors refer to the perceptions of risk and danger in society. It is said that "no touching" policies have lead to such situations as male teachers afraid to pick up injured students lying on sports fields. Basically, this report talks about why teachers end up being warned about touching students and the effects that can result from rules and fears about touching students."

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