NeuroTypical

Someone asked me "Could you possibly be any more annoying?"
So the next day, I wore tap shoes.

Hey Utah people: How many of you know that it's legal for random citizens with conceal carry permits, to secretly and legally carry in public schools?  Is it surprising to you that Utah has had armed teachers, staff, and parents for like 15 years or more?  Nobody measures it, those who carry don't advertise it, pretty much nobody talks about it, it's pretty much not in the news so nobody is freaking out about it.  I remember hearing the news after I had moved out of Utah, and I was jealous at the maturity y'all were showing.
https://bci.utah.gov/concealed-firearm/general-information/concealed-firearm-permit-frequently-asked-questions/
http://www.newsweek.com/utah-teachers-can-carry-guns-school-and-not-tell-anyone-269923
 
Anyway, the fastest way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is with a good guy with a gun.  It's a pity there wasn't one around.  It takes time to kill 17 people, in various areas, in and out of a building.  Dang shame someone wasn't able to draw their gun and run towards the sound.  

There are a ton of reasons. 
Spiritual reasons: Some folks are struggling to be there.  Some folks don't want to be there at all, but show up for various reasons.  Or are apathetic.  Or feel like outcasts. Or, as you mention, are addicted to the internet and their devices.  
Health reasons: Some folks have colds and don't want anyone to catch it.  Or people have colds, and they don't want to catch it.  Some have mental health issues and don't do well in crowds or classrooms.  In my ward, there are two that have chemical sensitivities, and rarely even make it into the building.  They are as active and faithful as their health allows them to be.  
Practical reasons: Foyers are a blessing to folks with young kids learning to behave, or throwing fits. 

When our family was young we tried taking our little kids to the foyer – we discovered it did not help them be reverent in Church nor did it contribute to our spirituality any more than staying at home.  Mrs. Traveler concluded that the teaching of children begins in the home.  So, she started training our children to be reverent at home.  She would sit in the formal living room with the children training them to be sit quietly with some church only books and toys.  While I served in bishoprics she was alone with the children (5) – on occasions I would take one of the old boys with me to sit on the stand.  It took a lot of practice at home but once Mrs. Traveler took the matter in hand we never had to take a child out.  Interestingly we often take grand children to church when they are left with us and we never have to take any of them out either.
What I learned from her efforts is that children that are taught to be reverent (not forced) enjoy church more than children in foyers.  At least that is the case in our family, friends and ward members I have observed
 
The Traveler

There are a ton of reasons. 
Spiritual reasons: Some folks are struggling to be there.  Some folks don't want to be there at all, but show up for various reasons.  Or are apathetic.  Or feel like outcasts. Or, as you mention, are addicted to the internet and their devices.  
Health reasons: Some folks have colds and don't want anyone to catch it.  Or people have colds, and they don't want to catch it.  Some have mental health issues and don't do well in crowds or classrooms.  In my ward, there are two that have chemical sensitivities, and rarely even make it into the building.  They are as active and faithful as their health allows them to be.  
Practical reasons: Foyers are a blessing to folks with young kids learning to behave, or throwing fits. 

There are a ton of reasons. 
Spiritual reasons: Some folks are struggling to be there.  Some folks don't want to be there at all, but show up for various reasons.  Or are apathetic.  Or feel like outcasts. Or, as you mention, are addicted to the internet and their devices.  
Health reasons: Some folks have colds and don't want anyone to catch it.  Or people have colds, and they don't want to catch it.  Some have mental health issues and don't do well in crowds or classrooms.  In my ward, there are two that have chemical sensitivities, and rarely even make it into the building.  They are as active and faithful as their health allows them to be.  
Practical reasons: Foyers are a blessing to folks with young kids learning to behave, or throwing fits. 

When I was the SS president I asked that an instructor be called for a hall Sunday School class as well as a 3rd hour class.  Have this individual walk the halls, take roll and give short spiritual encouragements to those wandering the halls – perhaps even having an opening and closing prayer.  The bishop vetoed my suggestion.
 
The Traveler

It’s been a while, but I think Wikipedia has an article on defensive gun use.  The stats are controversial, but range from about 55,000 per year on the low end to (IIRC) well over  a million a year at the extreme high end.

People can scoff and mock whoever and whatever they want.   I don't have to respond, much less give them a seconds thought.

This continues to be good advice when "lots of people on Facebook" are off doing things:

 
This is also good advice (especially what starts at 4:08).
If you've already let yourself get upset, then we all should sing this song to you.  
Honestly, these are gospel truths I'm suggesting here.  Take a look.
 

This continues to be good advice when "lots of people on Facebook" are off doing things:

 
This is also good advice (especially what starts at 4:08).
If you've already let yourself get upset, then we all should sing this song to you.  
Honestly, these are gospel truths I'm suggesting here.  Take a look.
 

I also knew.

[sobbing hysterically about how everything is fine...]
 

And I read it as four 6" heels.

Fountain pen obsession! It’s a thing! 
https://blog.gouletpens.com/2015/05/7-things-you-should-know-before-dating
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/216559-do-many-of-your-friendsfamily-know-about-your-pen-obsession/

Thanks -- and curses -- to @zil for introducing me to this site. The hours I have spent working the logic puzzles presented there will not have been wasted when, at my life's end, I stand before my Creator and he says to me, "If thou wilt be my son indeed, tell me: If Martha did not go up to Jerusalem on Wednesday; and neither Peter nor Mary wore the lambskin sandals; and between Timothy and the person wearing the camel-hair overcoat, one went to Jerusalem on Friday and the other carried a cruze of oil; and..."

I knew this.  And, yeah, nobody makes a big deal about it.  The last big deal was when a stupid teacher accidentally shot herself in the loo.  Minor flesh wound.  Hopefully she served as an example to others of what not to do.

STRONG, STABLE FAMILIES WITH STRONG FAMILY VALUES!
That's the ONLY solution.  In my clan, if we find out we have some idiot cousin who would take a gun and shoot up a school, we smack him upside the head over and over until he gets over that notion!

I remember my middle-school years as a grey smear of anxiety with occasional red streaks of terror.  I was bottom of all the social ladders as recognized by all the groups.  I was shy and gullible and cowardly and socially inept and afraid of rejection or ridicule.  Worst 4 years of my life.  Peer pressure almost killed me back then.  I absolutely did not go to any dances, or for that matter any other non-classroom event if I could avoid it. 
The school's intent with this practice of "say yes", was to reach out to such kids.  Help encourage an accepting and inclusive atmosphere.  Help the backwards ones like I was, have some opportunities to grow a little self-esteem based on the payoff of asking a girl to dance and having them say yes. 
Bit of practical reality: If I had caught wind of something similar back when I was that kid, you couldn't have dragged me to such a thing at gunpoint.  No matter what the grown-ups are thinking or saying or striving for here, the brutal jungle of teenager culture already has it figured out.  The "pity yes" kids, who can only dance with girls because the schools force them to say yes, already know who they are.  And so does every other kid in school, including the girls.
I'd bet ten bucks the kids in this school already have a name for these kids - and it's likely more horrible than "pity yes" kids. 
This well-intentioned effort not only sends the wrong message to girls by violating their agency, it doesn't even help the kids it's intended to help.

Not at all, LP. My disgust with the article had nothing to do with you. You are a sister whose views don't always align with my own. The author of the article appears to be someone who wishes to violate the most basic building blocks of human relations.
I have no other article about "boundaries" to suggest because I think the current pop culture mania surrounding "consent" is paranoid and decidedly unhealthy. I think "boundaries" and "consent" are reasonable enough topics to consider, but they are areas that most children master by the time they get out of kindergarten. Those who have not mastered them consist largely of people with social delays or deficiencies. Such people should be carefully instructed by parents and other concerned adults (and children) how to express themselves in a physically appropriate manner.
If we drop the pretense, it becomes immediately apparent that the whole discussion in the article in question is a feminist proxy for maligning sex. Certain feminists have long claimed that sex itself is a violation of the female body, and that men (and boys) are by their very nature -- and by the nature of the heterosexual act -- attackers, aggressors, rapists, doing violence to women. THAT is the true palimpsest of this discussion. It disgusts me almost beyond expression that the author of the article to would so happily bring her pet obsession into a discussion about how children interface with their loved ones. Maybe the author is truly so messed up that she really thinks Grandma should ask permission before hugging her granddaughter. If the woman really is that batty, then perhaps she deserves pity and compassion -- but she most certainly deserves to be studiously ignored and not given even a moment of serious consideration.
It seems to me that physical touch is basic to the human experience, more basic even than speech. To teach a four-year-old that no one gets to touch him for any reason unless he gives explicit permission is absurd, messed up, paranoid, abusive to the child, and lots of other nasty terms that I don't care to think up right now.
I understand bad things happen to people. I understand that we try to make rules to minimize those bad things. I understand that when bad things happen, we have to be patient and kind to the victims. I also understand that we don't let the victims make the rules. Rape victims are routinely dismissed from the jury pool in trials for rape -- and for very good reason. We cannot expect a rape victim to be reasonable and rational about someone else's claim of rape.
Grandma and Grandpa get to hug their grandchildren. The grandchildren can hug them back, or they can grit their teeth and wait patiently until it's over. But to expect that grandparents should never touch their grandchildren in affection without the grandchildren's explicit permission is a symptom of a sick or even depraved mind, one that always assumes the worst and that guards against that worst-case scenario at the cost of family.
The OP is not about evil boys being allowed to prey on innocent, victimized girls. It's about a hamfisted attempt by a public school administration to accomplish an arguably good end by stupid means. It would be nice if we could keep the feminist subtexts out of the discussion -- a silly notion in 21st-century America, to be sure, but still my desire.

Here's two ways to lose with certain people:
1- Decline to preach the gospel to, or baptize, the children of same-sex households.  Because that would put them in an impossible situation of having to choose between God and their parents, following one and rejecting the other. 
Result: Get blamed for splitting up the family, luring children into brainwashing centers and teaching them their parents are horrible hell-bound sinners.  Guilt for the suicide of any kid in this situation is laid on the church's head.
2- Preach the gospel to, and baptize, the children of same-sex households.  Teach them the gospel, which includes God's plan of happiness, a traditional definition of marriage, goals of marrying someone of the opposite gender or nobody. 
Result: Get accused of "segregation, clicks, people not accepting them and not helping them."  Guilt for the suicide of any kid in this situation is laid on the church's head.
Keep in mind, people in these marriages are always telling is this ISN'T like smoking or drinking or sinning - this is a central issue that makes up the core of their being.  Not something that can just be set aside without harm.
So, if the church is what it is, then God is the one directing our actions here.  If it isn't what it claims to be, then I guess it's a whacked-out cultural club with quirky cliques and segregation.  Why would anyone want to be in that club?

To be honest, I've sort of missed the fact that we're talking about 12 yr olds.  I'm too busy fighting the melodrama and being sucked back into black memories of the horrible past. *
 
 
 
 
* To continue being honest, most of the drama and blackness was due to me catastrophizing plain old normal life.  But it didn't seem like that at the time.  Growing up rocked.

I remember my middle-school years as a grey smear of anxiety with occasional red streaks of terror.  I was bottom of all the social ladders as recognized by all the groups.  I was shy and gullible and cowardly and socially inept and afraid of rejection or ridicule.  Worst 4 years of my life.  Peer pressure almost killed me back then.  I absolutely did not go to any dances, or for that matter any other non-classroom event if I could avoid it. 
The school's intent with this practice of "say yes", was to reach out to such kids.  Help encourage an accepting and inclusive atmosphere.  Help the backwards ones like I was, have some opportunities to grow a little self-esteem based on the payoff of asking a girl to dance and having them say yes. 
Bit of practical reality: If I had caught wind of something similar back when I was that kid, you couldn't have dragged me to such a thing at gunpoint.  No matter what the grown-ups are thinking or saying or striving for here, the brutal jungle of teenager culture already has it figured out.  The "pity yes" kids, who can only dance with girls because the schools force them to say yes, already know who they are.  And so does every other kid in school, including the girls.
I'd bet ten bucks the kids in this school already have a name for these kids - and it's likely more horrible than "pity yes" kids. 
This well-intentioned effort not only sends the wrong message to girls by violating their agency, it doesn't even help the kids it's intended to help.

That feeling when your efforts to teach inclusivity and promote kindness, sneaks up behind and murders your support of the #metoo movement.