Skirt ban school accused of influence by TRAs

[hellooooooomama]

Link to article

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj93kljpdn9o

I bloody knew there was more to this. I applaud the parents for not holding back.

I have started a new thread because I felt the older one got completely derailed after a while.

I'll link it below anyway.

Original thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5349469-headteacher-backtracks-after-calling-for-gender-neutral-uniform?page=17

So any actual evidence just random accusation by a random unnamed individual(s)?

They are parents at the school. They will know a lot more than we do what's actually going on here.

I don’t get this at all if TRA’s were in the mix surely they would want skirts.

I have no issue with trousers as a dress code for all. Not on the basis of gender neutral, on the basis of girls being less vulnerable.

In this cohort most of those vulnerable to TRAs are female.

My own daughter tells me she feels more like a boy in trousers. She prefers a skirt. She's much younger but I do think the way we present is important to individuals and this school were trying to restrict choice.

I don't know why they don't just introduce dresses, which cannot be rolled up.

(That last comment was in response to the often repeated argument that girls can't be trusted or policed to keep their skirt length to a respectable length)

Or just police skirt length like schools have done for millenia.

Then get accused of "perving" when they tell a girl their skirt is too short.

Theres no actual easy answer.

Seems more likely that TRA would object to boys not being allowed to wear skirts in order to be ‘gender affirmed’. As for the idea that girls in trousers are some how more ‘boy’ - that is straight of of the TRA rule book. The school should stamp down on such regressive sexist nonsense.

I agree - and actually I believe all clothing should be universal. Sadly it's not and the kids catch on quickly to the stereotypes 😔

You appear to have a vested interest in stoking some kind of fire when there doesn't seem to be any fuel. If parents want skirts as an alternative to trousers (there should be choice) then that's nice, and I look forward to them fully supporting the teachers when they measure skirt lengths and hand out detentions and other sanctions for violating the school rules (for any and all infractions of uniform code, by boys or girls). Don't expect there will be anyone saying it's draconian, their daughter was only 1 inch out, and besides which she's not having detention because she needs to be a ballet class....

What your daughter at an entirely different school thinks she would prefer to wear is irrelevant.

Personal attacks on a headteacher for doing their job is appalling and you should be condemning that - not applauding it and stoking more flames. No wonder people don't want to enter the profession and are leaving in droves.

@PhilippaGeorgiou why didn't the school canvas opinions? They knew it would be unpopular.

I think the behaviour of schools is important to all our children, not just my daughter.

Fwiw I applaud the HT for listening to the parents and backing down. And of course personal attacks are deplorable. However none were given as examples in the article so perhaps he's just taking it personally?

But I do agree with the parents that there may have been undesirable influences involved. They are closer to the situation than we are - I can't imagine it just came from nowhere.

Is you next campaign going to be telling the UK biggest employer of women, the NHS, that nurses must be allowed to wear dresses instead of tunics and trousers?

There's been no "examples" presented that this was a result of TRA's either - but yet you seem to be insisting (without evidence) that it was. In fact your OP said "I bloody knew there was more to this. I applaud the parents for not holding back." It didn't once mention that you deplored personal attacks on teachers based on unevidenced claims by anonymous parents.

Is this to me? They are allowed to wear dresses in the NHS.

He was accused of being a sexist pervert on here so I can imagine that he was getting some pretty disgusting allegations made against him in real life, particularly when it made the press and the wider public got involved.

I doubt he was simply 'taking it personally'.

I couldn't possibly know if those claims are evidenced or not. It just feels a bit too convenient not to be relevant iykwim.

And I do admire anyone who works in schools, I think it must be the hardest profession nowadays. But I think parents should be consulted on matters such as uniform.

Then it’s your job to educate your children. Help your daughter understand that ‘feeling like a girl’ (as you’ve put it), has no bearing on what clothes she wears. She is a girl and can be a girl in trousers. From what you’re saying about how your daughter feels and equating skirts with sex, it sounds like a universal trouser uniform could be positive for everyone.

That is true. I didn't like the way that original thread went tbh.

Oh trust me I do point this out whenever it comes up! It's something I've always been extremely passionate about.

Thinking on @noblegiraffe it could well be here that the comments were seen. I may ask for the thread to be pulled so that we don't get any repeats. It would have been good to hear from parents involved, however I think it would be quite a long shot for any of them to see this.

The fact that teachers could be called sexist perverts for commenting on the length of school skirts is another reason for trousers. The head teacher needs to protect staff as well as pupils.

I doubt the head saw that comment, particularly as it got deleted.

I am sure that he has been absolutely deluged with complaints and insults from people who don't even have children at the school. From experience with other schools that have been 'shamed' in the national press.

I think it should be more socially acceptable for girls and women to wear trousers in certain formal / social occasions, and more socially acceptable for boys and men to wear skirts and dresses.

BUT, I also think that a lot of the time males wear skirts it is 100% for attention (or worse) not for a better reason. And more importantly I think that males and females both look appalling in clothes designed for the opposite sex (and indeed they look appalling in clothes for their own sex if the style they choose is one that is not right for their particular body.)

If women and girls are going to wear trousers they need to be cut for (their type of) female body, and vice versa.

I would argue that it is a teaching opportunity - men and women notice when men have their tops off or are showing a builders cleavage. Men and women notice when women and girls wear revealing clothes. How women and girls choose to navigate that is their choice, but the idea that people will not notice or are doing something wrong if they do is just delusional.

We can hope for and work for a better world, butthe best way of navigating the real world is to accept it, and not to pretend we live in a utopia.