Teacher makes plastic hug machine so she can still embrace students during pandemic

A creative teacher found a unique way to safely embrace her students amid the coronavirus quarantine.

Kelsey Pavelka, an elementary teacher, used a plastic barrier made of 12 reusable bags to give her students ‘Quarantine Hugs’ at the front door of her home in Mucie, Indiana.

Pavelka’s wife, Shelby, reportedly made the barrier for Kelsey because she had been missing her second-grade class after schools across the country shuttered to slow the spread of the virus.

On Wednesday, 14 of Pavelka’s students visited her at her home and were overjoyed to learn they could give their teacher a hug.

‘Most students ran up to my door squealing!’ Pavelka told CNN.

‘Then we hug a bunch of times and talk about all the things we’ve been doing. There’s usually a lot of jokes told and dance moves on display!’

Pavelka said she originally saw the idea for the plastic barrier on TikTok, where people have posted videos of crafty methods they have used to hug loved ones. She said she showed her students how to clean the barrier after each hug, as well as the stool and containers for the disinfectants.

‘Many parents have shared that their student really needed this,’ she said, adding that one of her students was particularly in need of a hug that day.

‘When they got back from my house, he hopped in the kitchen to make himself a grilled cheese and he hasn’t wanted to do that in over a week,’ she said.