Teenage boys wear skirts to school to protest against 'no shorts' policy

[rpannier]

Dozens of teenage boys have turned up to school wearing skirts after their headteacher refused to relax the uniform code banning shorts despite the heatwave that has gripped Britain this week.

Pupils at the Isca academy in Exeter argued it was too hot for long trousers and asked if they could wear shorts as temperatures this week rose above 30C.

snip

One boy told Devon Live he had been told on Wednesday the skirt was too short and his legs too hairy. Some of the boys had taken this into account and bought razors to shave their legs.

One boy in year nine wearing a skirt said the protest had started with five boys wearing skirts but he expected “hundreds” to follow suit. Asked if he was enjoying the experience, he said he appreciated the “nice breeze”.

link
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/teenage-boys-wear-skirts-to-school-protest-no-shorts-uniform-policy

Anything to stay cool (or cool as can be in that weather)

[tblue37]

1. Good for them! Clever boys. Image:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/teenage-boys-wear-skirts-to-school-protest-no-shorts-uniform-policy#img-1

[Chemisse]

7. Awesome!

They are very young. It takes a whole lot of courage to do something like this when you are in the midst of the most self-conscious period of your life.

Many kudos to them.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Gotta love the creativity...

[Chemisse]

3. I love it! Good for them.

It's hysterical that they were told their legs were too hairy, and their response was perfect. The administrators must be in a real pickle.

[MineralMan]

4. Just call them kilts, guys, and claim the right of heritage.

Fight back! You can win, because the rules are stupid. Stupid rules need to be broken.

[Phoenix61]

5. Gotta love the Brits

Practical solution mixed with a wonderful sense of humor.

[Ezior]

6. I love it! Quite fashionable, too :-)

Don't shave the legs though.

[Chemisse]

8. Agree. But the promise to do so must have the admins apoplectic!

Which makes it a great ploy.

[tblue37]

9. Oh, look. Male bus drivers in France are doing the same thing!

"Overheated French male bus drivers don skirts in defiance of dress code"

Nantes crew respond to ban on shorts by turning up in skirts in protest against ‘unacceptable working conditions’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/french-bus-drivers-skirts-dress-code-nantes

When I was a schoolgirl, even in the worst icy/snowy freezing winter weather in Pennsylvania, we were not allowed to wear trousers. We word bright red, black, or royal blue tights (those were the only colors available back then) to try to keep our legs warm under our skirts, but it wasn't enough.

Eventually some of us started wearing slacks under our skirts. Weirdly enough the school let us do that, even though it looked ridiculous, because as girls we just HAD to wear a dress or skirt, even if we had on trousers under the skirt.

[tblue37]

10. I think stick up the behind authoritarians use dress codes as a way to impose control

and to oppress people with no power.

I agree that people should dress neatly and be clean and reasonably well groomed at school or work, but nitpicky rules that ignore real life conditions are absurd.

I think of boys in my school in the 1960s who were suspended because their hair was long enough to merely touch their ears! Or girls today who are not allowed into their prom because their gown has spaghetti straps or doesn't cover their collar bone.

Sure, I can see having rules that require prom dresses cover more than a Las Vegas showgirl's costume, but some of the dresses I have seen that have gotten a girl tossed out of prom are perfectly decent. In fact, it is pretty much impossible to even find a prom dress that complies with the rules imposed by some schools.

[tblue37]

13. Here is an example of the prom dress BS:

https://www.theblackloop.com/girl-not-allowed-in-prom-african-dress/

The girl's dress was lovely (and custom made), but since it had a quirky asymmetrical hem that was a few inches above the floor on one side, she was told it wasn't formal enough, because the hem didn't touch the floor all the way around, so it couldn't be considered a floor-length gown.

I suspect the real issue is that the girl is black and her dress used fabric with African motifs, but rigid dress codes allow little Hitler's to abuse their power:

******* "Instead of simply purchasing a dress off the rack, she had one custom made — laid with African heritage and inspired patterns. However, once she arrived at the door, the school’s principal — Mary Qualey — denied her access."********

The mother of the young woman said this:

******* "The dress code, when I looked over it, it did mention that the dress had to be floor length, and they considered it not formal since it wasn’t the same length all the way around. But then I brought it to [the principal’s] attention that some of the rules in the dress-code policy also state that midriffs, high splits, or low back dresses aren’t allowed. As I’d been standing there, I saw she’d been allowing all those types of dresses into prom, but here she denies my daughter, and she’s dressed appropriately, not showing any skin or anything inappropriate at all. Her response to me was she used her own judgement.” ********

Read more at: https://www.theblackloop.com/girl-not-allowed-in-prom-african-dress/

[Baitball Blogger]

11. The British. One wonders why the early Americans decided it was a good idea to dispense

with their English wit. We could have been a fun country.

[MuseRider]

12. I wonder if the girls

get to wear pants when it is cold?

Good for the boys.

In ancient times when I was in High School on a campus type school it never mattered how cold, wet, rainy, snowy or windy it was we females had to wear skirts or dresses. The boys could wear whatever they wanted. They probably would have gotten in trouble for wearing skirts but then they never needed to protest that their comfort was compromised for sexist, controlling reasons.

I hope this works for them or at least they can wear skirts.

[tblue37]

15. See my post #10 above on same topic. nt

[Doreen]

14. When I was in hight school the staff came up with the idea

of telling boys they could not wear shorts so they did the same thing. The staff changed their minds quickly. It was in the 80's when mini skirts were popular so you can imagine a bunch of high school boys in mini skirts. This by the way was in a small town public school in a very red county.