Unfair treatment?

[TeabySea]

I'll keep this brief and to minimal facts as it concerns a friend.
Friend has a daughter at senior school who is very tall for her age.
The issue is that she keeps getting put into isolation because, according to the school rules, her skirt is too short.
Uniform rules stipulate only skirts to be worn, and those skirts are from a specific supplier. They come in 3 lengths, the longest of which is still "too short " for my friend's daughter.
My AIBU is, was it wrong that I suggested she tell the school that her daughter should not be penalised for something beyond her control, and that if they are that concerned, they either allow girls to wear trousers, or provide an acceptable skirt themselves?

FWIW, the daughter has some other issues in the background and needs assessing for SEN. School have labelled her 'naughty' because she "asks too many questions ", "doesn't seem to understand the work" and fidgets. Missing time with friends is becoming problematic.

It is very unfair on the girl.
TBH I'm surprised if she has already been punished for this that your friend hasn't already had dialogue with the school about it.

That's outrageous, OP. Your friend needs to find her anger and advocate for her daughter.

That is a clear case of discrimination and asking for a big stink. Daily Mail sad face article? Schools hate that.

I assume your friend has asked the school which skirt they suggest she wears. I would have done that the very first time they complained.

I also have a tall DD (who is all leg!) and thankfully her school has never complained about he skirt (despite her rolling it up🙄)

I don't think friend has yet pursued as there seem to be many issues. Seems to be a very strict school in terms of uniform (blazers to be worn all year, socks a prescribed length and colour, hair ties only in set colours, etc.)
I'm wary of giving too much information about the school or the friend as I wouldn't like to mess with her management of the issue.

again all i have to say about UK school uniform rules are: they are often completely batshit.

You need to get as many girls & parents as possible to campaign for girls to be able to wear trousers and for school uniforms to be able to bought in generic shops.

Uniform rules stipulate only skirts to be worn, and those skirts are from a specific supplier. They come in 3 lengths, the longest of which is still "too short " for my friend's daughter.

Why hasn't your friend pointed this out to the school? It's a no-brainer. Clearly there is no uniform option currently available that will allow her daughter to keep to the rules. She is being told that all skirts must be from a certain supplier, but also a length that reaches a certain point on the leg. That supplier doesn't sell a length that reaches that point on the child's leg, so the child has no option but to break the rules (either by wearing a skirt that's too short or by wearing a skirt in the right length that's from another supplier).

So your friend needs to point out to the school that this is an insane catch-22 situation that literally cannot be resolved to the school's satisfaction unless someone lops her daughter's legs off with a chainsaw.

I don't understand why she hasn't had that conversation with them or why you'd need to ask if you were reasonable to suggest it.

But she isn't doing any management of the issue, is she?! She's just sitting back and letting her daughter be victimised over something the daughter is entirely powerless to resolve.

@KreedKafer at this point, whilst I appreciate what you're saying, I'm not clear on what action my friend has actually taken, as we spoke about the issue last month when it first came to her attention. I've been stewing over it as to me it seemed unfair but I know that on MN, some folks are sticklers for uniform rules, hence my AIBU.

What sort of school doesn't allow girls to wear trousers in this century? And who in the right mind would send their daughters to such a school? What strange values are they teaching?

Has your friend tried actually speaking to the uniform supplier? Ours has more sizes available if you talk to them than they have for sale online.

But sure, if I were your friend of course I would have that conversation. You can't make her do it though. Is your friend ok?

Very unusual these days. Literally all the schools round here have gone to gender neutral uniform lists for very obvious reasons so trousers (and skirts) are an option for everyone.

If the school already have issues with the girl’s behaviour then it’s doubtful that all the isolations only relate to her skirt!

@Kath85 possibly - as far as I'm aware, the girl is waiting to be assessed for various SEN matters/issues.
According to what my friend said, the isolation is relevant to the uniform being 'contravened'.

This is ridiculous.

When DD was at school they had a written
rule that skirts had to be no shorter than 2 inches above the knee. However the uniform supplier sold skirts by waist size and there was no choice of length. My DD was an average height and build for a girl her age, not especially short or tall, skinny or plump. Yet we absolutely could not get a skirt in her waist size that was long enough to meet the school requirements. The only skirts long enough to be 2 inches above the knee were about 6 inches too big in the waist!

I just used to buy her the correct waist size and she never got pulled up on it. But if she had I would definitely have been in touch with the school. They choose these designs that you can only buy from one supplier and then set rules about length that their own suppliers don't even accommodate