AIBU to challenge the school’s wording about pupils rolling skirts up?

Do you live in the real world?

How do you know how much attention teachers pay to the curriculum?

Never, ever seen 'bare buttocks' <improvement on 'sweaty arse cheeks' well done> below a blazer. It would seem unbelievable really to have such anatomy.

If only teachers paid as much attention to the curriculum!

An awful lot of girls, judging by this thread and our collective experiences.

The social contract is simply shot to pieces when the basic common-sense assumption that of course you wouldn't want people to see your private body parts and underwear in public is suddenly far from universally accepted.

Not quite the same thing, but there was always a basic agreed understanding that, if you wanted things from a shop, you would pay for them; or if you were determined to steal them, you would at least be very careful and discreet about it, and frightened of the prospect of being caught and everybody finding out. Nowadays, there are lots of people who will shamelessly fill a massive bag in full clear view and just stride out with it - and, like the teachers, the store security guards just don't know what to do, as the basic social code has now just vanished.

I think the most ridiculous iteration of this fashion was when I saw a girl whose blazer was longer than her 'skirt' and from the back there was just the bottom of a blazer and then the bottom half of her bare buttocks.

Just ridiculous.

I've never gone and challenged authority by taking off my clothes?!

She was told to put it back on and taken away 'to be spoken to'.

I guess schools know they are already on very shaky ground wrt child protection and protecting themselves from accusations, in a situation which ends up with teachers being close to to defiant adolescents who are standing there half-dressed.

I don't know the girl in question, but I'm guessing that, if she is so brazen in that act, she's clearly marked herself out as entitled and/or a troublemaker. It screams "Go on, I dare you to challenge me" - so I'd say the likelihood of her potentially following it up with allegations or deliberate misrepresentations of the facts must already be much higher. The well-behaved kids would never dream of doing that in the first place.

And this school simple came back and said essentially no biggie… the girls behave well?

That it was inappropriate for anyone to be wearing skirts so short their knickers were on display That it wasn’t a one off, it was a regular occurrence i I said it wasn’t short skirts it was inappropriately short. It wouldn’t be accepted in the work place. It did not reflect well on the schools image. As a woman I don’t want to see teenagers underwear flashing at me. I have a daughter so I understand they like to dress a certain way but it’s our job as responsible adults to guide them on appropriate dressing I acknowledged women should be able to dress how they want but within reason, not when buttocks are being shown. I also made it clear if the boys were showing their underwear and bum cheeks I’d be having the same conversation - teenagers should not be showing off their pants or buttocks

I'm not sure I see the problem with the wording. It's up to the school to enforce the uniform rules and guidelines but surely it's up to the parents to have the talks to their kids about safety and dressing appropriately also. it's not about telling your kids they're asking to be attacked purely for how they dress it's about teaching your kids that in school they have to abide by their rules just like they'll be having rules and regulations when they leave school and get jobs

Although I know what you mean the school skirts are totally inappropriate.
Also a teacher. Their bum cheeks hang lower than their skirts. It’s then the job of their form tutor to make them correct this, so obviously could be a male or female having to explain it. Surely it would be better coming from their parents.
We have glass railings on the stairs and upstairs corridors. You can’t help but see everything.
It would be like your son declaring the new fashion was to put a massive slit in the crotch of their trousers and wear a thong underneath.
No one wants to see it!

@Gloriia count yourself lucky. its hard to believe if you haven’t seen it, but it is literally thong on display, including the boot third of the bum when standing up. not great.
I don’t mind when they wear boxer shorts underneath, but the thong or brazilian knicker is just too much

A girl removed her skirt?! Like who in their right mind goes to school with the idea that they'll show off their underwear

Some schools changed to kilts in the hope of stopping rolling up skirts it didn’t.
In my day when mini skirts were the height of fashion our school would measure the length of skirt and if it was wrong length you were sent home the view being rules are rules. No one went to the papers to complain like they do every September.
To be honest I see the rolled up skirts every day and believe me rightly or wrongly it is very unfair for the opposite sex to have to negotiate the provocativeness of some girls.
In this day and age I don’t know why schools don’t just adopt trousers for all and shorts in the summer. Problem solved.

Yeah every school our dc have been to it's the same but apparently not everywhere and some posters have been subjected to 'sweaty arse cheeks' at every turn.

It isn't rocket science but we are talking about teachers here, either opaque tights like everywhere else or trousers then those walking upstairs can do so without been subjected to the horrors many describe in such fine detail. Repeatedly.

Part of the issues is that some (! by far not all!) women and girls confuse feminism with being a brat.
Not a teacher, but we have a lot of interns at work.
The guys are mostly ok,usually easy to weed out the not so great ones at interview.
The girls seem to fall in 2 grops: amazing, or bratty. The last 2 were the bratty category, full of “i’m a girl, I need help, can do what I want and if i get criticism, it’s because you are sexist”. That attitude is really doing some damage to all women!

So how did you word your complaint about the length of the skirts? @Biggles27

And? What happened next?

Probably the same as when reports of nasty bullying are reframed by schools as 'friendship issues'.

You'd think (hope) they'd be mortified at their pupils, representing them and the school, dressing in such a way as the general public feel the need to complain; but apparently they just don't care.

A girl at my DS's school was told by the teacher that her skirt was ridiculously short, so she responded by simply removing it so she was just wearing her tights.

I think there are some girls who genuinely seem to believe that their uniform is effectively tights (at least those who bother with them) or (extremely short) cycling shorts - with the skirt being nothing more than a decorous accessory.

Thanks for clarifying - I agree with you, then.

However, I still don't see why "because we don't go around making other people look at our our bottoms and private areas in public" isn't enough in itself for some people on this thread - without all of the other concerns, justified as they clearly are.

Basically, schools should move into the 21st century and alter the uniform so that it is no longer skirts. I’m not being sexist in any way and I speak as someone involved in education. Schools are under intense scrutiny and pressure on this issue across the whole country. I’m personally in favour of a sports type uniform that is unisex. Even gym leggings are better, in my personal view, than these hitched up skirts. Schools can’t win if they take a hard line or not, if pupils protest.

I have already said this, but I live near a large high school with a gender neutral uniform. I have only ever seen two or three girls wearing trousers, they all seem to prefer skirts - which are not revealingly short btw. I wouldn't have wanted to wear trousers when I was at school, and didn't wear them to work.

Once you bend at the hips to sit down, your skirt/trousers/shorts have further to go round your arse than when they're hanging straight down, so they'll ride-up massively. It's not particularly pleasant to have to work next to someone whose clothes barely cover their thigh-tops from the side, and flash their pants from the front if the desk isn't very wide - fine when WHF, but in schools and workplaces - no thanks.

Yes, we used to say "it's snowing down south".

From another who went to school in the 60s/70s, when we did indeed roll up our skirts in line with current fashion but most certainly not to show our bums and knickers - we would have been mortified to do so.

I've never seen skirts as short here (not the UK), and very much doubt it would be tolerated. Why are some schools allowing it there?