Girls told to wear longer skirts at school because the boys are distracted and male teachers feel uncomfortable.

Why are skirts still part of school uniform? Just make the uniform as unisex as possible and these problems don't even arise in the first place.

Had a phonecall along same lines last year. I totally see both sides. Why should women have to modify what they wear ...? However, dd's skirt was just covering her bottom and she wore thus without tights. I had questioned her and got eye rolling so was relieved school backed my opinion. She got a mid thigh skirt and everone was happy. she now wears the tightest trousers ...

"Sammy, no only is your skirt too short, your thong is too tight and I can see your shaven labia." We have staff meetings about how to say this subtly. The conclusion, it is not possible for a male teacher to say it. Your DD's school obviously has a Sammy.

Who said they are having sexual thoughts, as a woman I find it inappropriate, and I don't have sexual thoughts, I'd also find a man walking around in skimpy shorts ins appropriate also in a school setting.

Sometimes I dispair, men can find female behaviours inappriopriate with sexualising it.

I find it pretty sad my boys are growing up in a world like this.

'Girls need to learn to dress appropriately for their environment. Very short skirts are not appropriate for school any more than they are in a workplace. There is no reason for them to be wearing such short skirts and I think it is entirely appropriate that they have been told to revert to the proper uniform.'

PP put this well. They should have been told this. However, to ask them to change to police the the feelings and behaviour of men is shocking, particularly the adult men.

I support fully the notion that women have a right to dress as they please and that how they dress should not affect how assaults or attacks are perceived but these aren't women, they are children. Children by their very nature are still learning and it's a schools job to educate. The girls and boys have newly developed urges and interests that are best kept outside the school environment. I think the message the skirts are too short and it encourages boys to stare up them in an adolescent way isn't entirely inappropriate. Miniskirts were created to encourage boys/men to stare at girls legs. Young male teachers run the risk of inappropriate accusations and career limitations if a girl says "Sir was looking up my skirt" but if it's flaunted in front of him as he goes up a staircase what is he meant to do? Fall over from looking away?
Girls need to learn that whilst it is their right to dress as they wish, some forms of dress do attract male attention and they may need to ensure they can cope with that. A beautiful young thing in a thong and triangle bikini is going to get more looks and comments than a rounded middle aged women in a swim dress. Most beautiful young things wear the bikini for that very reason.

Do the school make any money from the sales by any chance

They think highly of their staff don't they? Surely by the mere fact of they are children should ensure that most normal people would not be having any kind of inappropriate uncomfortable thoughts....

I find it very hard to believe that any senior management team, or teachers even, would stand in front of a group of teenage girls and say those words out loud.

Even if they thought it, they wouldn't be stupid enough to say it given how switched on everyone is these days. They know it would be all over social media in an instant.

I have a hard time with this question: I agree with the principal that girls and women should be free to wear what they like without taking into account the feelings of men.

However... (Splinters on bum from the fence I'm sitting on) I am not sure this is a sexist issue. It applies to girls in this context because they are the ones wearing skirts that are too short but I am pretty confident the school would put into place a a similar rule if the boys were turning up in skimpy shorts that showed their bottoms or underwear. Actually I think if that were happening, the parents of girls would be complaining that their daughters shouldn't have to learn in an environment where boys were intimidating them by walking around with bits of their bum on show.

So, I dunno. I think school uniform should be roughly in line with normal business wear. No skirts so short they show pants, no cleavage, no unbuttoned shirts on boys.

Iagree that short skirts are not appropriate for the environment they are in, however this message that they can control what the boys do by modifying their behaviour is what is giving me the rage.

But they aren't asking them to modify their behaviour other than to wear longer uniform skirts.

I have seen girls' knickers in school sometimes and that is something that makes me uncomfortable despite being female - it's that you've seen something they wouldn't want you too, breached their privacy through no fault of your own. There are short skirts and short skirts - the fashion for a while was basically a belt, worn over tights that weren't as opaque as they imagined them to be. Wholly inppropriate for work or school, you need to be able to move around freely without flashing at someone.

There is clearly a problem here that the school are trying to address.

I agree that the male teachers should have no problem. They are adults and should not be distracted in any way by 15 year old girls. Maybe this was an ill-advised thing to say.

Teenage boys though are a mess of hormones and probably are incredibly distracted by skirts that are so short they are showing the girls' knickers as they walk upstairs.

Girls need to learn to dress appropriately for their environment. Very short skirts are not appropriate for school any more than they are in a workplace. There is no reason for them to be wearing such short skirts and I think it is entirely appropriate that they have been told to revert to the proper uniform.

It is a shame that the school have had to point this out. The parents should have stuck to the proper uniform in the first place.

I have had quite an eyeful on escalators in shops, sometimes it's difficult to know where to look.

however this message that they can control what the boys do by modifying their behaviour is what is giving me the rage.

But are they already trying to "control" what the boys do by deliberately wearing very short skirts?

I agree with soupdragon. Wearing an extremely short skirt is usually to draw attention to legs which is fine out of school, but not in school.

Tbf as a woman I don't want to see young girls underwear, and it makes me uncomfortable, so I'd completely understand why a male teacher would find it uncomfortable also, just because it makes them feel uncomfortable does not mean they have any sexualise the female students.

My dh would be completely side tracked by this in a work place setting.

Actually he was one day when he went to a customers home and she was in a towel with her 2 female kids, he went home as to him it was completely inappropriate to conduct a meeting.

Hanging not handing.

I really don't want to see someone's arse handing out when I'm behind them in the stairs no matter who they are.
The school could have phrased it differently but I think it's right to point out. It's school.

I'd be writing, too. Official school uniform, fair enough. Making girls responsible for how men and boys feel is not on. I hope they'll be talking to the boys about how to manage being distracted, and if the teachers can'take cope - well, they're teaching in a mixed secondary school. It's part of the job that girls this age will be walking round, and whatever the school uniform is, there will be girls who unbuttoned their blouses one button too far, and roll up their skirts to make them shorter. If it's against scholarly uniform, pick them up on it, and if that's the worst of their behaviour, be glad. If a teacher can't cope with how he feels, he probably needs to consider if it's the right place for him to work.

Many years ago I sat in on a drama class of year 7s. They were sitting on the floor cross legged.

Thongs and short skirts.

It's not just male teachers who don't want an eyeful.

If I can see what colour a girl's knickers are, the skirt is too short.
If they flash the occasional bit of knicker whilst being gangly, daft teenagers, well that happens and will be grown out of. No problem.
If I can see their knickers whilst they are walking, climbing stairs or sitting sensibly. They need a longer skirt.
As a female teacher I can say this to a student. If a male teacher says the same, he is liable to be accused of all sorts.

Hmmm. Obviously many of the girls are not wearing skirts from the official uniform shop. If the skirts are so short that you can see under them when they walk upstairs then I think it's a bit of a problem yes.

I think it's a decency thing. If a boy wore a pair of shorts so tight and so short that it left not a lot to the imagination I would think exactly the same thing.

My friend (mid 40's) wore a pair of black hot pants the other day with sheer black tights. She bent over to pick something up and believe me, I saw pretty much everything. I couldn't not.

Girls can wear whatever they like outside of school, as can my friends

Clearly, for them to make a big deal of it after assembly, a LOT of girls must be wearing skirts that are classed as too short. Why are the parents not ensuring their children wear the correct uniform?

Of course boys shouldn't look up girls skirts. But we're talking teenagers with raging hormones. A girl going upstairs in front of them who is wearing a skirt so short that the boys can see their knickers is wearing an inappropriate outfit for school.

A lot of people are concerning about the "sexualisation" of teenagers getting younger each year in terms of clothes.

The skirts they are wearing must be extremely short.