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

[GreenSalon]

Weekly newsletter today from DC’s secondary school contained a paragraph on uniform including the fact that there have been complaints from the public about “pupils who choose to wear skirts” rolling them up to wear them extremely short. It finishes with asking parents to speak to their children about why this is “not a good idea”.

Now, apart from the fact I assume that they must mean girls, is this not clearly implying that short skirts = making themselves vulnerable and if is, then if anything bad happens as a result it is their own fault? I thought we had moved beyond this kind of nonsense.

I only have boys at the school not girls but want to write to the head to point out how utterly sexist this is. DH agrees with me pov but thinks I shouldn’t write. AIBU?

Oddly enough, I have never seen schoolboys walking around showing chests or anything else come to that.
Schoolgirls are a different matter.

Good for them. Something should be said somewhere, I live near a school and in my days girls rolled the skirts but honestly.. this isn't that.. this nowadays is just obscene. Not sure if girls can understand the implications or what as they are very young obviously but this needs to be said

This is an example of seeking to find fault whilst ignoring the sense of the message sense. Ie.
Girls are rolling up their skirts. To a very inappropriate level. Which is not a good idea.
Which it isn’t. You can test the water if you’d rather. I think it sensible not to go there. Young ladies in very short skirts are not going to attract people who may not have their best interests at heart are they ? You can go along and have a debate with them about how the girls should be allowed to wear whatever they wish. Personally I think it better to be practical and try to avoid a situation occurring.

Hard disagree OP. I am a teacher ( female) and I really don’t want to see kids labia and arses.
A lot of it is peer pressure but their skirts are rolled up so high it is grim.
Keep your camel toe to yourself kids.

Nobody wants to see naked arse cheeks. It is for many reasons a bad idea to show your naked bum cheeks in public. Nothing wrong with that .
i just came back from the train station, i can tell you that a lot of girls wear colourful thongs, and some wear Brazilian style knickers. I really shouldn’t know this (and had no desire to know it).

short skirts = making themselves vulnerable and if is, then if anything bad happens as a result it is their own fault?

Thats a bit if a leap, of course any kind of assault is not the victims own fault.

But you have to be realistic and see that eg an extremely short skirt will draw male attention to the wearer, for better or worse. Lets be honest, drawing male attention is a large part of their function.

How a girl (or anyone) presents themselves in public does have an influence on how others will regard her and behave towards her.

I think the school is mainly getting at what is appropriate for school children, but at the same time everyone should be streetwise in life as regards their decisions and actions, and how others might respond to them - including in a negative way.

It’s about decency and not all kids seem to know what is acceptable yet. You can literally see the thongs on some girls here aged 14/15/16, not even wearing decent coverage underwear. Schools can’t win can they - parents should be bringing girls up to know that you should cover underwear in public, it’s not about safety it’s about self respect

And also, as @NotAnotherScarf points out from the male point of view, men find these sexual displays objectionable.

I didn’t post on AIBU expecting everyone to agree with me. And the majority of responses so far, if not all, disagree with me. Which is fine. But honestly, what I didn’t expect is the vague personal insults in quite a few of the posts, implying I’m a busybody or stating outright that I’m weird. I’m neither.

What I am is someone who is vaguely struggling with their feminist principles where I strongly believe women and girls should be able to wear what they like without being called out on it. But I do appreciate the pov of posters who have daughters or are teachers for example who are saying there should be different standards of dress in education settings.

I don’t see every young person going in but I should say few are wearing skirts so short you can see underwear and the majority wear tights. But I’m not saying that’s every skirt wearer.
Anyway, I’ll stop here because I’ve got my answer!

It finishes with asking parents to speak to their children about why this is “not a good idea”.

@GreenSalon - do you disagree that it is “not a good idea”, then? And if so, why?

It’s mainly when she’s going to be alone that it’s a worry, like walking home from school. I have made it very clear my problem isn’t her bum cheeks my problem is men who couldn’t give a shit that the arse they’re leering at is a school kid.

No she doesn't. She refers to pupils, children and girls.

I appreciate not all men are like greek gods - if they were, you wouldnt be complaining lol - but there isnt a dress code for public places, beyond some minimum decency.

In my work, our boss recently complained about the standard of dress to the dept heads. He says its slovenely (jeans, t shirts etc). He wants the men in business attire (trousers and shirts). As usual for workplaces, the women get to wear what they want.

Gosh. Such a leap when you literally know nothing about me.
I know this is AIBU and can be combative but still.

There must be some doing it because schools are usually far too busy to be sending out messages like this for no reason.
I disagreed with you and I would definitely consider myself a staunch feminist. But this isn't a feminist issue. The school haven't singled out the girls. They specifically said "people who wear skirts". They have made efforts to make sure they are not singling out the girls.
The issue is with skirts. The fact that skirts are usually worn by girls is largely irrelevant. Noone wants to see teenage boy bums either, I assure you. I expect your school also doesn't allow "sagging" by the way.

Weirdly enough I never had to talk to our male interns about suitable office wear (smart casual). I have to talk to most female inters at some point , and had to send two home (triangle bikini top, micro mini that showed everything, stiletto sandals she couldn’t safely walk in - we are an R&D environment)

The school objecting to skirts being rolled up, I agree with. As I don't want anyone spending half their day adjusting their clothing to preserve their modesty instead of concentrating on lessons. Also, there will be jobs where there is a uniform required (although getting fewer) and so this is a lesson for life.

Something like that, not because members of the public don't like it.