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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Girls wearing skirts at school

73 replies

RedskyAtnight · 01/09/2020 08:09

DD (Y10) has decided this year she wants to wear a skirt to school after having always previously worn trousers.
She had tried her skirt on and was showing me when she said "Oh and I'll need some cycling shorts to wear underneath". I told her she really didn't and I got a hard look and a "yes I do Mum, my school is full of paedos". Established that she actually meant boys at the school and not male members of staff.

DS (Y12) then wandered in, saw DD in a school skirt and asked "Are you wearing shorts under that?". DD said that I was going to get her some and he said "good, there are too many boys at our school who like looking up the girls' skirts".

I've come across the argument for wearing shorts under school skirts before, but it's normally at primary school age and linked to the risk of showing off underwear when doing cartwheels.

Perhaps I am being naive, but I was genuinely shocked that this was happening. Is this widespread teen boy behaviour, or is their school particularly bad?

OP posts:

AppleKatie · 01/09/2020 08:11

It’s widespread in many schools op yes, although of course not all.

It’s one of the many reasons I think skirts shouldn’t be a uniform choice at secondary school. That and how restrictive they are to normal activities in practical subjects.

Normalmumandwife · 01/09/2020 08:13

I just wish they would introduce a trouser only rule in all schools. Ours allows skirts but they basically keep the one from year 7 and it gradually gets shorter and shorter with it also rolled over. Some teachers enforce the length rules and a few don't bother

Mintjulia · 01/09/2020 08:15

It depends on the school but, yes it's not rare.

Buy some cycling shorts.

LittleBearPad · 01/09/2020 08:17

How do boys look up a girls skirt that easily from a practical point of view.

The cartwheels thong makes sense as the skirt falls when the girls upside down.

But on a day to day basis - girl is walking around, sitting down etc (assuming she isn’t sitting like a rugby prop forward). Skirts don’t tend to fly up and can be weighted if they are light (which school skirts aren’t).

What practical school subjects are hampered by school skirts?

Phineasthegreat · 01/09/2020 08:19

So, girls shouldn’t be able to choose to wear a skirt because boys will behave inappropriately?

Wouldn’t teaching boys not to abuse girls be a better solution? And, you know, create a better society going forward?

I understand that it’s a less easy solution, but is restricting girls rights due to male toxicity really what we want the standard response to be?

cariadlet · 01/09/2020 08:22

@LittleBearPad Most secondary schools have lots of staircases. If you are going up and boys are behind girls, it wouldn't be too tricky for them to look up the girls' skirts.

HelloDulling · 01/09/2020 08:22

Like you, OP, I am shocked. My DD is the same age, but at an all-girls school, so it’s not an issue. How awful that this is accepted, and the solution is to wear shorts, not do something about the boys.

To add, you might want to tell her that the boys are not paedos, they are perverts.

HelloDulling · 01/09/2020 08:23

chubbyhotchoc · 01/09/2020 08:24

Yes upskirting is a thing. Schools try to stop it by issuing length rules on the skirts but most girls roll them up.

Hotelhelp · 01/09/2020 08:24

I remember the odd trouser pulling down incident at my school

Todaythiscouldbe · 01/09/2020 08:25

It's not a thing at our school. I'm struggling to see how a boy could look up the knee length skirt the girls have to wear even if he wanted to.

LittleBearPad · 01/09/2020 08:26

[quote cariadlet]@LittleBearPad Most secondary schools have lots of staircases. If you are going up and boys are behind girls, it wouldn't be too tricky for them to look up the girls' skirts. [/quote]
Rubbish. They’d need to contort themselves into a ridiculous position to do that. Some may do that I suppose and they need to be called out on it and taught to behave better. The girls shouldn’t have to diminish their options, behaviour and choices because some boys can’t behave appropriately.

Fairybatman · 01/09/2020 08:31

I’d be shocked too, and also straight on the phone to the school.

chubbyhotchoc · 01/09/2020 08:33

@LittleBearPad it's not rubbish I can assure you. The girls wear the skirts so short you can see their butt cheeks if they're on the stair well above and boys snap pics on their phones. If girls wore their skirts correctly and didn't roll them up or buy deliberately too short skirts they wouldn't be able to do it.

thereplycamefromanchorage · 01/09/2020 08:33

I agree, this is pretty shocking. I would be on the phone to school as well. Maybe an assembly about how upskirting is an offence?

thereplycamefromanchorage · 01/09/2020 08:35

@chubby, you're blaming girls for boys' behaviour. Regardless of the length of skirt, boys shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.

Baaaahhhhh · 01/09/2020 08:35

Girls school here so no issues. However, from the instagrams I see of them, short skirts, along with low tops, and body con, obviously aren't an issue out of school, and many of them have public accounts, makes me sad.

YouJustDoYou · 01/09/2020 08:36

Was always a thing. Will probably sadly always in the future be a thing boys do too. Our skirts used to be flipped up, bra straps snapped etc. It got even worse when they made the toilets unisex once for a few months whilst building work was going on, the boys had a field day. That was in the 90/00s, and the girls even at the junior school near us often have to wear shorts under their skirts.

Normalmumandwife · 01/09/2020 08:36

@Todaythiscouldbe

It's not a thing at our school. I'm struggling to see how a boy could look up the knee length skirt the girls have to wear even if he wanted to.

They don't wear them knee length though. They nearly all roll the waistband over to make them so short they just about cover their knickers (or shorts).

I understand it is a constant battle at our school to stop it

YouJustDoYou · 01/09/2020 08:38

If girls wore their skirts correctly and didn't roll them up or buy deliberately too short skirts they wouldn't be able to do it

If boys were taught not to be such perverted little harassing shit heads it wouldn't be a problem either.

chubbyhotchoc · 01/09/2020 08:40

Wouldn’t teaching boys not to abuse girls be a better solution? And, you know, create a better society

Yes because teachers don't have enough to do. I can assure you respect is taught intrinsically in all schools but it's not reinforced at home for a lot of boys.

DoTheNextRightThing · 01/09/2020 08:40

I'm with your DD tbh. Secondary schools have staircases and the fear of having someone, particularly boys, looking up your skirt when you were further up the stairs was always there. I stuck to trousers.

LittleBearPad · 01/09/2020 08:41

Either way cycle shorts aren’t going to help.

Skirts will either be long enough that they cycling shorts aren’t visible so completely pointless.

Or they will be made so short that the cycling shorts will be permanently visible and as I assume that’s not a look girls are going for they won’t wear shorts.

Fundamentally some of the boys need a lesson in respect and the law which is much more important than girls adapting their behaviour.

GhostTypeEevee · 01/09/2020 08:43

@chubbyhotchoc

Isn't upskirting illegal? Why are the police not being informed?

Todaythiscouldbe · 01/09/2020 08:43

@YouJustDoYou

If girls wore their skirts correctly and didn't roll them up or buy deliberately too short skirts they wouldn't be able to do it

If boys were taught not to be such perverted little harassing shit heads it wouldn't be a problem either.

I presume you meant to say 'some boys'

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