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

I'd go for the 3 Cs: Clean, Comfortable, Covered up.

Teeny tiny skirts would still be banned.

clara

You do know that there would still be restrictions about the clothing that pupils could wear?

No uniform= no problem

When I began my first post on this thread with the words that "as always, the male sex is totally to blame in this situation" I thought I was being facetious. No longer. It seems to be the norm that females can dress and behave precisely as they choose without attracting any judgement whatsoever as to the appropriateness of the dress and/or the behaviour. Men, on the other hand, are in the wrong simply because they are men.

Men wear inappropriate clothing sometimes too. I don't think this is a sexism issue. There is a problem in our society with women being blamed for male behaviour. The Ched Evans thing makes me mad...

But that doesn't mean I want my child to go to a school where the kids are scruffily dressed and take no pride in their uniform. Lycra skirts look ridiculous.

"I'm not sure even if a skirt is very short how going up stairs would result in showing knickers"

Obviously haven't been on a school staircase for a while then.

I think far too many posters are getting carried away with this. Its not dictating what can be worn, but what is appropriate for a certain time and place. It certainly was worded wrongly though.

That's a good point FlyAway I'm not sure even if a skirt is very short how going up stairs would result in showing knickers! You'd kind of have to be on open stairs such as where you could be stood right underneath and then regardless of skirt length you'd probably be able to see.

I imagine it's more like at my old school and they don't want tight fitted skirts, as you can see that a girl has a bum!! Ours was same with trousers.
I'm not sure why they don't just introduce a ankle length, high neck smock for all high school children to wear a bit Victorian night wear style! As obviously no kind of sexually inappropriate behaviour would have ever gone on back then!

Skirts in school should be a decent length - hemlines no higher than knee-length, imo.

And by the way, I tested the statements about seeing up skirts on stairs. I tried really hard to look for other women's underwear on the stairs going to work today, and at my place of work, but nope. Nothing. However hard i tried, i could not see a flash of knicker.

What difference does the age make though. Off limits is off limits.

Urgh, parts of this thread are REALLY depressing to read.

It's 2017 and we're STILL focussing on what is "appropriate" for women to wear. And then we think the problem's solved by "unisex" clothes, which nowadays means requiring girls to wear male-coded clothing ie. STILL requires females to change behaviour to accommodate male behaviour.

Women and girls are sexually harassed and attacked whatever they wear. IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. It's the MALE behaviour which is the problem, not FEMALE dress.

Sheesh.

This isn't a new problem though. I can remember in the late 60s my husband saying teachers had to be careful where to look when going upstairs behind some of the older girls.
And to those saying, "But they're children," some of these children will be 18 and some of the teachers will only be early 20s.

toomanypetals is an example of just exactly why male teachers feel uncomfortable about girls in short skirts.

Against school rules, but can't tell them to do anything about it for fear of accusations of looking at girls legs. Getting a full frontal flash from Sharon in 10b is, as many female posters here have said, not nice, a female teacher can tell a girl, but a male might get an accusation ( like you have done toomanypetals) so doesn't do anything. More and more teachers not enforcing the dress code/uniform then leads to it being abused more, and the cycle goes round again.

The current fashion is for the tight lycra things that are so short that unless you sit with your legs cross and clamped together you're going to be flashing, frankly its uncomfortable for the girls to sit like that!

One male colleague who did used to tell girls about their uniform just used to say to unroll it at the top, as that made it more about the bulging waste band rather then the length, but with the current things being worn that doesn't even work.

The school phrased this wrongly though, should have been dealt with in a better way.

and that how a woman is dressed doesn't have any bearing on her sexual availability . That's not entirely true though, at least not in our society. Clothes are symbolic, to some extent. We do dress differently according to our situation. Most of us would dress differently, say, in a professional situation where we just want to get on with our work, to a nightclub setting, where we may just possibly want to attract someone sexually.
It's quite simple to me, very short skirts, especially underwear revealing ones, belong in the second setting, not in schools or a work enviroment.
Yes it's unfair, and it doesn't entitle boys or men to sexually assault or harass in any way, but it still doesn't take away the symbolism of clothing (especially girls/women's clothing).

Fgs just because the school worded the message unforgivably badly, that simply does not mean that male teachers are actually being distracted by girls' legs. They see the girls wearing ludicrously short skirts and think "That is inappropriate", not "Phwoarh get a load of that". As I would if I saw a boy with his pants hanging out of his trousers or his shirt not done up.

Whatever people may say about it being fashion that makes the girls coat themselves in make-up and fake tan and wear their skirts so short, it is totally naïve to think that none of them are seeking to look sexually attractive to the boys. Of course they are. They are teenage girls fgs. The teachers (male or otherwise) often have kids themselves and will be looking with slight disapproval and concern at the way the girls dress, not with inappropriate thoughts.

toomanypetals nobody said that. They said that male teachers may feel 'uncomfortable'. It's 2 different things.
Male teachers have to be very careful how they look at and interact with female pupils in case accusations are made (and your post kind of demonstrates that). I think I would feel uncomfortable in that situation.

Like everyone else has said, point out that it's pretty worrying that teachers are so easily distracted by children's legs, because they are children, there's no question of that. Then ask if the boys were held back to be told that they shouldn't be looking at girls as sex objects, and that how a woman is dressed doesn't have any bearing on her sexual availability.

Toomanypetals - a 15 year old is a child but has a woman's body. It's not comparable to an 8 year old. That doesn't mean it's ok for adult teachers to view school girls in a sexualised way.

No one is mentioning the paedophilic nature of grown men looking at a girl's legs in this way?

I'd be asking for an explanation as to why 'you are allowing men who feel sexualised by underage girls to work in your school?'

My dh doesn't feel uncomfortable by my 8 year old daughter being naked. Why should it be any different with young teenage girls?

A school over here solved the problem

They banned skirts. Now all pupils wear trousers.

yesterday all the girls were kept behind in assembly and told they must wear skirts from the official uniform shop.

The first post needs altering: if we lived in anywhere near a society which didn't systematically teach the hatred of women (ie misogyny), your OP would have read:

yesterday all the boys were kept behind in assembly and told they must learn to respect all their peers as human beings and not treat women as sexual objects

I'd be going into the school to get an explanation - but as others have said, maybe be a bit passive-aggressive about it: "I'm interested in why you think the girls are responsible for the boys' and men's lack of boundaries?"

Bring back those thick baggy school knickers! We had to wear them in a fetching shade of dark brown.

I agree - the school should simply have said that the girls are to wear the correct length skirt and if not they will be sent home This is what happens at my daughter's school. I would complain about the teenage boys and their hormones thing but I do not think short skirts should be allowed at school. A couple of inches above the knee is ok but we have all seen the kind of short that goes way beyond.

I really dislike men walking around topless/shirtless in hot weather. It feels aggressive / intimidating. In schools and workplaces there have to be sensible rules about dress.

That was the point of the Op's thread though lottie that the school gave the reason as it been a distraction to boys and uncomfortable for male teachers. She said in her op that her daughter already wears the regulation skirts and she's no problem with that!! Her issue is with the reasons given.
And it's a very serious issue, which unfortunately is very prevelant in a society, where women and girls are routinely blamed for the actions of men and boys!

It shouldn't be about the boys or the male teachers. The point is that it's not appropriate for anyone to be revealing their underwear in public places but especially when it's a child.