When students go to the quad at lunch, they are most likely looking for friends, crushes or some sort of pleasant interaction accompanied by a snack. What they are greeted with instead are Public Displays of Affection (PDA) so intense and passionate that they are forced to hide their face in distress to try and regain their composure.

PDA creates an uncomfortable spectacle that causes countless collisions between students too preoccupied with the scene to notice each other on their way to class. Students are not only offended by the displays but are also concerned with the potential message that PDA sends to the public. “Clearly they are getting deprived of love at home,” senior Student Body President Channing Hancock said.

Their peers also question the motives of the students who so blatantly flaunt their attraction for one another. “It’s pretty impressive,” junior Frances Kao said. “I mean that’s what they’re trying to do, right? Impress people?”

But some students not only condone PDA—they are strong advocates of it. Many students see their right to grope as a freedom of expression and do not care about the repercussions their actions have on their peers. “As long as they aren’t actually making out, I don’t see it as a big deal,” senior Katherine Chen said. But who’s to say what defines “making out?” Cannot sly hand holding and constant vocalizations of “No, I love you more!” be just as unsightly for spectators?

Although Gunn has no official policy set with PDA, Likins sometimes walks around nonchalantly, breaking apart couples she feels “push the limit of what is acceptable at school.”

It’s true that it is possible to turn one’s head at a distressing angle to avoid witnessing love in action, but the fact is that it’s a lot easier to stare, like a witness to televised surgery. If the members of these couples want to be respected later in life and maybe even make friends after their mate leaves them, they should tone it down.