The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Mascoutah District 19 Superintendent Sam McGowen. He gets the award for the following.

Mascoutah District 19 Superintendent Sam McGowen said Wednesday that Middle School student Megan Coulter was warned twice about public displays of affection before she was punished Friday for hugging two students.

"The first instance came at a basketball game a week ago," McGowen said. "And believe me, it was much more than just hugging."

Megan's mother, Melissa Coulter, said Wednesday a boy had his arm around her daughter at a basketball game a week ago, Assistant Principal Randy Blakely told her husband. Blakely intervened, then contacted Dean Coulter the next day because Megan had disappeared from the game after he addressed her.

Melissa Coulter said her daughter had stepped outside the building, upset and embarrassed, to call her and tell her what happened.

"So I know what happened," Coulter said. "There was nothing else going on, and it really upsets me."

Coulter said they didn't take it as a warning because Blakely's complaint was about Megan disappearing.

McGowen also said there were two separate incidents Friday: Megan hugged one person outside of the school building and received a second warning about public displays of affection. She then went back inside, came out and hugged a female friend in front of the school principal, he said.

"When she does it right in front of an administrator, well, what else are we going to do?" McGowen asked.

Of course, make yourself and your school district into national embarrassments. When a hug is worth a detention, and school officials defend their actions, its a sorry state of affairs. People in this school district should be screaming for McGowen's head, the man has absolutely no sense of judgment and he's in charge of a school system. Someone give Sam McGowen a hug, because I just made him today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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