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

[Exercisejunkieforlife]

My DD is 15, yesterday all the girls were kept behind in assembly and told they must wear skirts from the official uniform shop.
I have no problem with this as this is where we get DDs skirts, my problem is with the reasons given.

They were told that it distracts the boys when the girls walk up the stairs and makes the male teachers feel uncomfortable.

AIBU to think that the girls should not have to modify their behaviour / what they wear so the 'boys' don't look up their skirts and that the male teachers are responsible for their own feelings. ?

I think schools have to safeguard everyone. A girl in ds's year would wear short pleated tennis style skirts and then accuse boys/male teachers of looking at her legs etc, up her skirt. Ds said lots of the quieter boys got very embarrassed as everyone laughed.

Echoing something said above - the OP sounds like a DM head line.
I'm pretty sure the discussion would have been delivered in a more rounded way and bringing potential sexual thoughts of the male techers (even the gay ones..) to the event seems fairly cack handed at best. As posters say, the female teachers can be invited to feel 'uncomfortable' too.

This attitude gives me the rage. Reminds me of a job interview when I was told in no uncertain terms never to wear a skirt (of any length!) Because it would 'distract' the mostly male workforce

I went to an all girls school and whilst some girls took the piss rolling their skirts right the way up, strutting about in huge heels and tiny handbags instead of school bags (??) I can only imagine the uproar if the school wrote home and basically victim blamed for the fact the male teachers couldn't contain their erections with children.

YABU

The skirts at DDs school are barely there. If they bend over to get something or walk upstairs I'm pretty sure everything is on view. Why should boys and teachers have to be made wear blinkers so girls can go around half naked. It's not always possible to suddenly avert your eyes if something happens in front of you. There's a time and a place for tiny skirts and school is not the place. It's good that the school is enforcing a good standard of uniform. It would not be appropriate to wear skirts this short in the workplace so why shouldn't the same rules apply at school.

I totally agree with OP, at my daughter's school they are told the same thing. I believe the issue is with men/boys and that they should be expected to have some respect and show some self-control. All of the girls at my daughter's school wear opaque black tight ;so NOBODY is showing their pants. Some of the boys get away with wearing very close fitting trousers that look like leggings and I think this is inappropriate, but they are never called up on them. As for telling the students that they should be preparing for the work environment, lots of teachers wear very short skirts and when the girls point this out they are told 'they are adults they can do what they like!' This is very contradictory.

I'm not assuming they are. Certainly teenagers are very obsessed with the fashion and fairly worryingly sheeplike in that way. But I went to school with teens (male and female) who were trying to get noticed by the opposite and same sex. Not always in a sexual way either. Sometimes they were just aping grown up traits (making them look taller / curvier/ more muscular) as teens are still childlike enough to think looking and dressing like an adult is the aim in life. Very much fake it to make it.

I agree with a PP that as a female teacher I frequently spoke to girls about the length of their skirts. My male colleagues (wisely) did not - even though we were supposed to check uniforms with our tutor groups at the beginning of the day.

There is nothing wrong with insisting that all pupils dress appropriately and professionally (as we would at work) and leave their more daring attire for their leisure hours. However there is everything wrong with the reasons this person has given.

YWNBU to contact the school and say exactly what you have done in your OP - you agree with the uniform rules but strongly object to the reasons given. The person giving the assembly really needs to have their attention drawn to this.

We wore all sorts of daft stuff when I was at school out of fashion and competition. In particular, we rolled up our skirts to be as short as possible! We were told not to wear patent leather shoes because our knickers could be seen reflected in them. At the time, we thought our Senior mistress who delivered this message was a dried up old spinster who was imagining things, but who's to say she was wrong?

If the environment is opening the girls to sexual harassment then it needs to change. In particular, of my daughter was at that school I'd want to know which teachers were incapable of controlling their
perving over teenage girls.

I think there is a possibility of 'be careful what you wish for' to be considered. Forget about the boys and male teachers for a minute. What about the girls (like the OP's daughter) who are being sent off to school with a normal length skirt. Is the OP going to feel so keen on standing up for the rights of the pupils to wear whatever they want if her daughter comes home one day demanding to trade in her sensible skirt for a micro-mini and thong, not because she really wants to but because of peer pressure or the need to feel in with the crowd?

Standardised uniform and sensible dress codes in schools solve far more problems that they create IMHO. It also gets children used to the idea that sometimes you have to conform to expected standards (e.g. in the workplace) whether you like it or not. Does the HT really deserve having to deal with a barrage of strongly-worded letters over this? He or she has far bigger fish to fry surely.

Maybe schools should make trousers compulsory for both girls as well as boys. This would stop all of these irritating issues around skirt lengths

My school found a simple (but horrifying for us) way around the skirts rolled up to just under our bums epidemic. They changed the uniform to culottes! Oh the shame!

"Uniform must be purchased from the official shop because all pupils must wear regulation clothes" - okay.

"Uniform must be purchased from the official shop because the males of the school are distracted by legs, and therefore the females must modify their behaviour" - not okay.

Nearly every school I know allows girls to wear trousers or a skirt - it's just that some girls choose to wear a skirt. I don't know if they would allow boys to wear a skirt though.

That wording is shocking - they should have said it broke school rules and many are dressing inappropriately for a school setting or workplace. I think complaining about the wording to school would be appropriate.

Having said that it's a real issue at DD1 secondary - and it seem to put pressure on younger ones to roll skirts up as normal skirts one that meet uniform guild lines are judged negatively by others - though longer pencil skirts DD1 is now favouring seem acceptable but she only in yr7 - seems worse with older girls.

I walk younger children to school and pass students on way to secondary - and all the young girls see to be in skint tight trousers - DD1 said that she heard many are leggings not trousers - and short skirts. One girls we got stuck behind had a skirt so short it just covered her arse cheeks was bloody tight as well and no tights - only place that would be acceptable is a night club. It's against the school uniform rules but they don't seem to be enforcing them.

if the boys and male teachers came to school in those horrible tight short shorts with visible bulges would that be ok?

no it wouldnt. so neither are mini/micro skirts

Why are you assuming it's because they are trying to attract men.

Why else would they wear skirts short enough to show underwear?

Is it not possible for a girl to do something because she likes to without it needing to be "for" somebody.

As is being continually pointed out, no decision is made in a vacuum.

Skimpy clothing is designed to show off the body. In the case of teen girls, it would be to look good in front of the boys.

How many arse skimming skirts are worn for comfort?

I'd suggest to the head that any male teacher who is sexualising teen girls due to their school uniform is let go immediately as they are creating an unsafe environment.

if the school wrote home and basically victim blamed for the fact the male teachers couldn't contain their erections with children.

That is not what they said though it is?

Well then why does it happen at all girls schools too then.

I was never interested in boys at school I'd have still chosen a short skirt over the monstrosities i was made to wear...

I was one of those students who rolled their skirt up. We all did it back then. It was an all girls school but we where still chastised and made to roll it back down. We had uniform checks everyday at assembly, sometimes the skirts where even measured with a ruler
I don't think I participated in this sport for attention from the lads, it was about fashion.

"Distracting the boys" - oh PURLEASE.

This is disgraceful. I would go ballistic. The lesson needs to be about self-worth and dignity, not about the poor boys who are being "disadvantaged" by a few short skirts.

I agree with you that the reasons given are all wrong.

At DS2's school, they have basically said the same - there is no official school skirt, but they want knee length or longer. They have however given the reason as encouraging the pupils to dress as if they were going to work in an office, not a social setting. They want them to look smart and professional as a way of preparing for the world of work, including work experience.

For the girls it basically rules out mini skirts and very tight blouses - or blouses with low cut fronts. For boys it means smart black trousers & white shirts - no trying to get away with black jeans & fashion tops. For both sexes they require proper black shoes "of a business type" & not the pumps/vans type shoes that have sneaked in over the years (previous rules just stated "black shoes" which was open to interpretation!)

The actual letter from the school explaining the uniform rule changes was worded much better than I have explained, but unfortunately I can't find it now! It made great sense though. Much more so than "don't distract the male teachers" .

I'd suggest to the head that any male teacher who is sexualising teen girls due to their school uniform is let go immediately as they are creating an unsafe environment.

I'd suggest that you learn the difference between sexualising girls and being made to feel uncomfortable and also that you read the comments from female teachers on this thread.

As the wife of a male teacher I know he is very uncomfortable with the length of some girls skirts. he says he has no wish to see anyones underwear, male or female and hates being put in a situation where he could be accused of looking at what he shouldn't be when in reality short of walking around with his eyes closed there is little he can do.

In his eyes these girls are children, he says that even 6th formers have such an immaturity about them that he can't understand how anyone of his age could find them attractive but the distraction lies in the trying to avoid seeing things that are blatantly on show because of what accusations might be made, not of what a male teacher is actually feeling.

I went to an all girls school and this still happened. Well it did in the lower school anyway (short skirts, tiny ties). In the upper school the opposite happened, it was like there was an unofficial memo at the start of Year 10 to wear a skirt so long the bottom dragged along the floor and a tie that showed underneath your jumper (it was the 90s, who culture was big in our school).