male teachers distracted by school skorts

[Deadringer]

i have read similar stuff on here but am gobsmacked that this has happened at my dd's school today. Dd goes to a fee paying girls only school, they have a strict uniform policy which i am happy with. On pe days, because of covid the girls have been told to wear their sports uniforms as changing rooms have been closed, so they are wearing their tracksuits, and the badmington and hockey teams have been wearing their skorts on training days. This morning one of the girls was stopped at the door and told that her skort was too short. It is a compulsary uniform for the hockey team, and they only come in one length. This girl is particularly curvy which is presumably why she was singled out. A couple of hours later, she was called out of class and told that her skort was distracting to the male teachers and she wasn't to wear it again. Then an announcement was made to the pupils that the skort was no longer to be worn in school or at training, but might possibly be worn at matches. This seems utterly ridiculous to me, that an item of uniform chosen by the school has been deemed inappropriate. I can't believe too that the principal was stupid enough to tell the girl that she would distract the male teachers. Surely ianbu?

I'd be kicking up a stink if my daughter was told that and I'd have serious concerns about the attitudes of staff.

Sack that paedo teacher is my advice.

That's pretty disgusting.

Serious concerns about the male staff if they are so easily distracted by the young humans in their care.

Are you absolutely certain that this is true?

Oh my god! Sadly it’s undoubtedly true, however how utterly unbelievable that she has been told this. I would be really escalating your concerns about a comment such as that being made by a headteacher. What an idiot

Personally I think the male teacher(s) has issues

My guess is that the comment said more about the teacher who said it than theoretical male teachers.

How humiliating for her. I'd be going postal if I was her mum.

Are the school putting this new policy in writing. I would email the Head for confirmation and an explanation.

That poor girl

It’s a compulsory item of uniform required by the school. If men cannot stop themselves from being distracted by such a sight then they should have no place teaching young girls, or any place anywhere near young girls.

The school is blaming children for male paedophilia. It's sickening.

That’s shitty for the poor girl in particular, but also in general. I agree that any teacher distracted by skorts on young girls would need sacking but like a PP I think it’s more in the mind of whoever said it!

My dd goes to a state girls school. They aren’t allowed to wear the skort to and from school on PE days but must wear the tracksuit bottoms (obviously outside of corona they would wear their uniform which is skirts or trousers). No reason was given for this but I assumed it was either a. To make them all look the same, b. Because they wear it with their blazer over the PE top/ tracksuit top and a skort with this would look sillier than tracksuit bottoms (which actually look ok), c. The skort is only for specific sports.

Generally with uniform the best reason seems to be “because we said so / that’s the uniform” and stick to it. Don’t be mucking about with it after term starts or be giving spurious ill thought out reasons!

The girl in question is 16, i forgot to mention that. The only explanation i can come up with is that the principal is quite new, and for the first time in the school's history, is male.

You know for a fact this was said?

Not sure what the relevance is if it being a fee paying girls school.

Was the teacher who said it male? Then he's dodgy as hell, because no man would say "your clothes are distracting me" and expect to keep his job.

I suspect the teacher was a woman? In that case, she has no evidence the girl's skort is distracting because, as said, it's unlikely a male teacher would comment on it, so she's really just being a prudish old lady.

Load of bullshit, this 'distracting boys' rubbish. Just sexist shite and complaints seem to come as much from female teachers too.

@CrowBones

I call bullshit on this.

Yep.

I am in Australia and my daughter used to do little athletics. She was a racewalker so a judged event where the judges needed to keep an eye on the athletes knee and make sure one heel touches the ground at all times. At one high level event I had an official come over very sheepishly and ask that for future events my daughter wear longer bike shorts as a judge had complained that it was distracting. The shorts in question totally covered DD's bottom with nothing sticking out and you would probably see shorter shorts at a shopping mall.
I was very vocal in saying that the judge had a problem and should not even be looking higher than the knee anyway if they were doing their job correctly. The official who was male totally agreed with me but said he had to pass the message on even if he to thought it was ridiculous.

My daughter also at a state school has been told they cannot wear the skirt to and from school. This was due to a comment a member of public made about it being too short - not specifically to her but this is what school said. They are short but they are not indecent, they are sportswear. My daughter was fuming, quite rightly. She said no one would care if it were boys in football/rugby kit and she’d be right!

Our skiort is too short. No one ever said it was distracting for the male teachers, but that it was not an appropriate length, and it truly wasn't, especially if on the curvier side! While they tried to find a new supplier, we had the issue of girls wearing it every games day and for matches, so they said the girls had to wear the leggings part of their games kit too. It was ridiculous, as now the girls had to wear four layers of clothing to play sport, and in summer was uncomfortably hot.
The issue was they never tried the skirt on a variety of girls of different height and size before approving the design and length. What was fine in a 10 or even 12 year old looked awful on a 16 and 17 year old.
I think its unfortunate they singled her out and also made her and the other girls feel completely self conscious in front of the delicate sensibilities of the male teachers. But they have finally recognised the problem and hopefully will address it by redesigning the kit.