Headteacher bans skirts as if too short they 'put girls at risk'

[Northernlurker]

here

I was pretty apalled by this - banning skirts because they give out 'signals' and the girls are putting themselves at risk by wearing them????
Thankfully my daughter doesn't attend that school but I have e-mailed the school address protesting at these comments. What does anybody else think?

Thanks Dittany - I am pleased with the way he responded - and reassured!

I'm glad they listened.

But I'm actually very disturbed, that they needed to listen. If sexism was taken as seriously as racism in schools, they would already have been aware of the implications of the original statement and would never have formulated it in the way they did.

I'm not blaming the individual school, I blame the educational establishment for not focusing on sexism as seriously as they do on racism.

YYY -- it has a negative effect on the learning environment, which hurts girls. A hostile/sexist work or study environment is not one where girls or women can function to their full potential.

This is a complete cop out. They may as well put them in burkas and eliminate the "risk" entirely.

The school should: (i)enforce skirt length rigorously and keep doing so; (ii) spend time trying to make the girls see the loss of dignity and control inherent in exposing too much flesh- this is not empowering; it's simply playing (along with pole dancing etc. etc.)a male game for the benefit of men; and (iii)teach the boys that no means no means no.

Rape is never a woman's fault; and, in any event, how likely is it at school? If it is sufficiently likely for skirt length to constitute a "safety issue" then the school has more problems than the uniform