The LA Times carries this story: a middle school in Culver City has outlawed any forms of touching between students. No hitting and no making out, sure, but also no hugging or other casual forms of connection. (Not clear from the story whether a pat on the back would be verboten.)
It's silly, but it's not new. I grew up a non-Mormon (heck, a no-religion-on) in a heavily Mormon town. Mesa, Arizona--at the time it had the second-largest temple outside Salt Lake City. At school dances, the boys would ask me to dance, and while we were doing the awkward lean right-lean left turnabout, they'd ask what ward I was in. Took a while to figure this out, but a ward is like a parish, a local church. When I said I wasn't in one (or early on, when I didn't have a clue what they meant), they looked frozen, and either stopped dancing then, or disappeared as the song wound down.
Anyway.
In this hyper-Mormon environment, my junior high (Mormon principal, Mormon vice-principal, remember the spelling: "the principal is your pal") instituted the same kind of no-touching rule.
One time, a girl was crying and her friend hugged her in consolation. They were punished. I can't say this is a confident memory, but pretty sure they were both suspended.
Another time, two ninth-graders (lord--they seemed so grown up and big then, when I was in seventh grade) were holding hands, both hands in her coat pocket in December. Their punishment I know, 100%: he was paddled, and she was forced to watch.
We were really progressive in Mesa.
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