Girls' skirts policed.

[ArabellaScott]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64743377

'Girls have been made to enter Rainford High School in St Helens separately to boys and have had their skirt length inspected by male teachers, they claim.

Hundreds of pupils staged a protest against how rules, which have left some pupils in tears, have been imposed.'

Same shit different century!

We should be past this kind of shit by now.

This has happened at my kids' school too. Memorably, girls were told that they needed to address their skirt length "so as not to be a distraction to male students and staff". Because it's of course the fault of the females that the males can't control themselves.

I am delighted to hear that students are protesting these archaic attitudes. I'm furious the protest is needed.

Not a fan of uniform in general, but I think there's arguments for making sure that clothing is not indecent. But the protests weren't about the length rule, per se:

'Rainford sixth form student, Summer, who took part in the protest on Wednesday, said: "It's annoying [the teachers] think we're protesting against the rule, [but] we're protesting how its being implemented - to have girls separated from boys. It's humiliating, and girls are leaving lessons crying.'

Heartening to hear boys were sticking up for girls by wearing skirts over their trousers.

My kids school started this thing where girls had to wear skirts with the school logo embroidered on them just below the waist band. The idea being, if a teacher thought the girls skirt was too short, they could say 'show us your logo' (they actually put that phrase in the parent info.). It was supposed to stop girls rolling their skirts up to shorten them.

It was as creepy as fuck and, of course, the logo's skirts were much more expensive. It turned out they were badly made and the scheme was suspended as they literally fell apart.

I bought them trousers which were cheaper because they didn't have to be logo's. I then stopped paying attention as it didn't affect my family. My kids aren't at that school now, I don't know if they're still doing it.

I'm feeling quite nostalgic, it was only a few years ago but before genderwoo became such a thing. Life coming at you fast.

It's shockingly sexist. But easier to police the victims than teach the boys.

It's high time that school uniform actually includes a choice of trousers, that suit different female bodies, as well a skirts. Then, maybe girls wouldn't roll up the their polyester knee length skirts.

This school's uniform policy requires the girls in years 7 to 11 to wear a skirt. There's no option for trousers on the uniform code and the code is split by sex.

I'm not surprised given their old fashioned methods for checking skirt length.

Uniform should be comfortable as well as smart enough, and should be flexible to cater for every height and shape combination. Especially for girls who already face being made to feel awkward about their bodies as they grow.

A Leeds school has seen similar protests.

www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/hundreds-pupils-protest-outside-leeds-26320301

And a riot in a Cornish school

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/live-updates-penrice-academy-riot-8184993

After toilet rule changes that include

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/penrice-academy-st-austell-under-8102995

only going to the bathroom outside of lesson time and girls requesting red cards passes when they are on their period.

DD's school has a skirt with a special coloured strip around the waistband- supposedly so the teachers could easily see if the skirt had been rolled over around the waistband. £26 a pop, and only one waist size per skirt length so if you were tall and skinny, to get a knee length skirt there would be masses of material around the waist. And did I mention £26 per skirt.

They've now introduced trousers.

Men measuring the skirt length of girls? Sounds like a safeguarding nightmare. What the fuck are they thinking?

Girls rolling up skirts is a decade's old harmless piece of rebellion.

With the exception of ties, boys uniform never seems to be policed... with girls its that skirt is too short, those trousers are too tight, those buttons don't do up properly...

While generally a "fan" of uniform... the sexualisation and policing of it is the biggest reason I can see for binning it! General rule for boys and girls that knees, shoulders, and torsos should be covered, no profanities. Have school colours if you must.

They’re upset because the skirt length inspection meant they were separated from the boys? Why would the boys need to be there? It doesn’t make any sense at all.

The uniform policy is what it is. If anyone, male or female, isn’t following it then the school have every right to let those children know. This has been the case since the dawn of time. When I was at school the girls were kept behind after assembly for the same reason and told to roll our ridiculously short skirts down. No one ended up in tears! And it would have been inappropriate and embarrassing to do this with the boys still present.

It feels to me like these kids are making a mockery of things like the Me Too movement. Their skirts are too short. End of.

Dd went through a stage probably in year 9 of wearing a skirt, got picked up constantly not just for length but also for wearing socks with tights (ridiculous fucking rule and i told them that…but without the fucking part)

she moved to trousers in year 10, the trousers were also against school rules but no one ever said anything to her…because if they did they’d have to comment on the boys trousers as well 🤔

They are upset at being singled out for uniform checks where the boys are not. And their skirts aren't too short, a few might be, but the majority won't be. They'll be subjected to these checks too.

It feels to me like these kids are making a mockery of things like the Me Too movement

yeah? I don’t reckon thats right

Are the boys wearing skirts as well? Then why would they need to be present? Maybe these schools should start allowing girls to wear trousers as well. I have never understood why some girls roll up their skirts like that anyway. Who are they shortening them for?

They’re upset because the skirt length inspection meant they were separated from the boys? Why would the boys need to be there? It doesn’t make any sense at all.

I think this is a brief sentence that has been perhaps poorly phrased.

Sounds like they were objecting to being taken aside, singled out, and judged.

They are upset at being singled out for uniform checks where the boys are not.

Presumably the boys would be spoken to en masse if loads of them had taken to wearing their trousers hanging down and displaying their pants.

Some boys do do this, of course, and yes, schools "police" these boys too.

The school DS goes to has a regulation skirt. It looks completely ridiculous when kids attempt to shorten it. Either they are blatantly wearing a two sizes too small skirt and busting out at the seams, or they're rolling up a kilt so it sticks out weirdly. They still do it, evidently, or I wouldn't know it looks absurd.

Yes growth spurts but oddly all the girls and boys in trousers manage to replace them before they're 3 inches too short, and most skirts are a lot more short of the requirements than that. So I think there's a large degree of deliberate boundary pushing. Which if you're going to have a uniform should be just as policed as boys are when they push boundaries e.g. tying their ties silly or wearing trainers instead of school shoes. (Though I do think all uniform ends up wasting teachers and students time and they do perfectly well on the continent without one.)

When there are a large number of children involved in the boundary pushing this is administratively difficult. Normally uniform things fall on the deputy heads so maybe there aren't enough female deputies to deal with it in a timely manner. We also wouldn't want girls to be held up in getting to their lessons.

It’s a local school to me and what I have heard about what is being deemed unacceptable is awful.

the uniform skirt is also apparently only available from one supplier and no length options!

This is a tricky 1 my local High school has started something similar due to some girls coming in wearing skirts that are as short as their blazers or shorter. Honestly some are so short that they can't even walk without showing their underwear, so the rule is no shorter than mid thigh. If a teacher thinks that a skirt is to short the teacher reports it to guidance who will speak with the student and if its a repeat issue they give determinations for it. As the uniform is the same for boys and girls skirts mid thigh or longer or trousers no licra or leggings. I agree with this policy and I suspect that if this school had done similar instead of having grown men inspecting girls skirts and measuring them the girls wouldn't be protesting

The sooner schools unclench and get ok with boys wearing skirts and girls wearing trousers (for heaven’s sake), the sooner they can stop backing themselves into these stupid corners

special uniform checks for the girls? Can’t believe they didn’t see this shit storm coming

Yes, it's the requirement for girls to wear a skirt, no choice to wear trousers, from one specific supplier and then treating them all as one and checking them en masse.

I don't think I've ever heard of a case where boys have been separated en masse and their trousers checked (by female teachers) to see if they are covering their pants.

The nuns at my school stopped arguments about skirt length by making us wear tight tunics which also acted at bust flatteners! As they were so expensive, I had to keep mine for five years, started off almost down to the floor!

My issue is not that the female students are asked to keep their skirts to a certain length, it's the way they are made to feel responsible for the male staff and male students' responses to them. The way the inspection was carried out on my friend's child and friends was humiliating and made several of them very upset. Also, at my children's school, many of the boys wear incredibly tight trousers that hug the crotch area. The boys have never been told to make any adjustments.

Yes, uniform can be policed, but it doesn't have to be done so in a way that underlines and perpetuates the societal belief that women are responsible for the sexual assaults and violence carried out against them. We have all heard the "what was she wearing?" question and we all know that rapes happen when women are wearing clothing which hides their bodies as well as clothing that doesn't.