Girls at DD’s school cannot wear socks because men and boys feel uncomfortable

[Eastie77Returns]

DD’s school has placed a ban on girls wearing socks due to persistent issues with girls wearing skirts that are too short and not the school’s regulation kilts. According to the e-mail sent to parents, girls wearing socks with said short skirts has resulted in some “members of the school community” feeling uncomfortable. When the issue was raised further by some parents, the (male) Deputy made it clear that it was essentially unfair to male pupils, and presumably teachers, to be made to feel awkward when girls undergarments were visible to them. There have also been issues with boys making suggestive comments to girls in short skirts.

I support the school enforcing school uniform policy but hate the fact that 12 year old DD and her friends are already being policed as to what they can or cannot wear because…men. DD hates the thick black tights she now has to wear. She always wore the correct length skirt and knee high socks.

The situation will apparently be reviewed ahead of the warmer months. I just feel this reinforces the view that girls & women need to ensure they dress in a way that doesn’t attract male attention but boys are not learning that inappropriate comments and behaviour towards a girl because of the way she dresses is completely unacceptable.

A cousin, slightly younger than me, told me that in the 70s they wouldn't be seen dead in the short skirts we wore in the 60s. So old fashioned

Maybe the little ones starting in reception now will all be getting told off about their skirts being too long in 7 years time.

Trousers only. No options for skirts. That was the case in my school many years ago and we all loved it. Particularly the large of leg and thigh like me, the competition to have the shortest skirt and the frilliest/tiniest knickers was eliminated.

Why is that not the policy instead of policing the undergarments of teenage girls?

I agree, they worded it terribly. They should have focused only on the rules and that those rules were not to be broken without consequence.

Genuinely curious by half the comments here, how much time do you think teachers have to be "clamping down" on skirts all day everyday?? No matter what the uniform is unfortunately there are always girls who will push it, i have no idea what it is with teenage girls specifically but some of them would rather not bother with skirts at all by the lengths i see.

Oh I dunno. When I lived in Spain (no school uniform), it was very fashionable for boys to wear SKIN tight jeans. So tight that they bought girls jeggings to get them really fitted. Seeing teenage tackle outlined clearly was no fun either. One can only hope that particular fashion has faded!

School skirts are SO short presently. Most girls I see in school uniform, their skirt is barely covering their bum. It looks ridiculous and it’s not appropriate.

My 15 year old DS has told me he has to be really careful when walking around school that he does not look up (for example when climbing stairs) as he could be accused of trying to look up girl’s skirts.

I agree that they should either wear appropriate length skirts or tights.

it’s not policing, it’s safeguarding!

Take it to the press. This is regressive and damaging. If there’s no trousers option for girls there’s also a health angle. Some girls can’t wear tights due to thrush or UTIs.

I don't want to see the underwear or buttcheeks of teen girls and I felt the same way when I was a teen girl at an all girls' school. However it is more difficult for boys to handle for obvious reasons and it's reasonable to care about not subjecting them to that.

I would refuse to accept the no-socks rule though. It doesn't even help - great, now I can see your arse through 15 denier. Let the school deal properly with the girls rolling their skirts up. Send home or require trousers and make indecent exposure the clear reason.

So the school should regulate skirt length - not police underwear/socks.

It's a wonder really that Andrew MW didn't see a role for himself in UK schools. It'd have been just up his alley!

I have already pointed out that not all girls want to wear trousers. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to, I wouldn't even wear them to work. The girls at my local school can wear trousers, I've only ever seen a couple doing so - and it's a large school.

So the teachers should tell them to unroll it.

Girls having been rolling up their skirts for decades. Can you point to any cases of a male teacher's life being 'destroyed' because he asked a girl to roll down her skirt? Or are you maybe being dramatic?

No one wants to wear school uniform in general.

Where did he say the males were misbehaving.

The thing is I'm not a teacher but I can see how ridiculous it is that teachers end up in a huge amount of time policing uniform rather than teaching. So I can see why schools get to the end of their tether and just insist on trousers or tight s.

That's not the fault of men or boys. It's the fault of the girls who go around breaking the rules to ridiculous extremes

This. And trousers should always be an option.

I was talking about countries which have school uniforms. Girls here wear their summer skirts short, but nothing like those I read about on MN.

I would have loved to have worn trousers at school. So much more comfy than a skirt but it wasn’t an option back then.

This can be avoided by having a female staff member read them the riot act.

Then the girls should be put in immediate detention as soon as the skirt hem drifts up. It would be a few weeks of agonising, petty, detentions and exclusions but if the school goes hard it will come out in the wash.

I don't know why they don't just get rid of skirts as school uniform altogether

I’d just send them home. Parents would soon get fed up of having to pick them up and maybe they’d sort out this problem.

I think it's absolutely shameful that the girls are being forced to wear a specific garment all because the school is unable to enforce their dress code. Talk about taking the easy way out!

I agree with trousers only skirts are totally unnecessary. I don't know any of DD friends that wear skirts outside of school.