I must confess that I am beyond shocked that a proposal to make the Hershey Kiss Pennsylvania’s official candy has bubbled up from classroom discussions, and now a Montgomery County Democrat has introduced legislation to make it happen.

I was confident that our Republican-controlled Legislature would nip this in the bud as a sign that they do not encourage such subject matter to be discussed in schools, but then I saw that the proposal had as its co-sponsors several prominent Republican legislators, including Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

According to primary sponsor Maria Collett, she was inspired to introduce the legislation because of the efforts of middle school students at Newtown Township, Bucks County.

What is going on with our schools? You mean, they are talking about kissing. Won’t this corrupt these young, impressionable minds, especially at this critical age when they might begin thinking of such things, and who knows where this will lead.

I am amazed that parents in the district have not descended on the board of education in droves to question why teachers are allowing their students to discuss such taboo subjects. You know how these things start. It seems innocent enough at first, but talking about candy kisses might lead these youngsters to start thinking about real kissing, then maybe holding hands, then, oh, no, I can’t bear to think about what might come next.

Nobody seems to be upset about this except me. “I’m thrilled to see this student-generated legislation move forward,” Collett said. “Hershey’s Kisses have become an iconic candy, not only in Pennsylvania, but around the world (you mean there is even a French kiss?), and their production has a profound impact on the commonwealth’s economy - from our dairy industry to manufacturing to retail. It’s only fitting that this sweet treat becomes our official state candy.”

I could see designating one of Hershey’s other well-known products as the state candy. This way, many of us would not have to be embarrassed in discussing or consuming a Hershey Kiss, especially in the presence of our children. How about a Hershey bar? Well, maybe not, because some of them have nuts, so we can’t go there. Well, there has got to be a well-known Hershey product that is not controversial.

The Hershey Kiss legislation is known as Senate bill 1122, which was referred to and cleared the Republican-dominated State Government Committee chaired by David Argall, R-Schuylkill, by a 10-1 vote, including Argall’s and that of controversial gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano. The bill now is scheduled to be considered by the full Senate. There is a companion bill in the House of Representatives that is sailing along, too.

I am urging legislators to think long and hard about approving this bill. What kind of message do we want to send to concerned parents who are riled up already over what is being taught in our schools? To support this grassroots effort by former middle-schoolers pushing for approval of a Kiss as our state candy would unravel some of the hard work that our legislators, parents and school board members have been doing to try to ban books, gender-related words and critical race theory concerns from the classroom. Pennsylvania has the second highest total of banned books next to Texas during the last nine months. After all of this progress, do we want to regress and support a - gasp! - kiss? It’s borderline salacious, I tell you.

Known as the Hersey Kiss Committee, the students, who now attend Council Rock North High School, set up meetings with Hersey executives, lobbied legislators, even drafted the bill’s language and generated media attention along the way. God knows how much damage has come to these kids as they were constantly exposed to the “k” word. One can only wonder what the long-term effects will be.

Obviously, the kids themselves could not begin to understand the dangers they were exposing themselves to, nor did the bill’s sponsor or the committee legislators who voted for the bill. Collett said that she hopes the experience inspired the students and other youngsters to engage with their elected officials and make their voices heard in Harrisburg.

Yes, the concept of legislative interactivity is a good one but, between you and me, do we want it when it involves titillating subject matter such as a “kiss”?

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.