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?

Agree the headteacher has been cackhanded and is sexist in his thinking. But its still a good idea.

Well, if it is anything like it was when I attended there, then yes, it is a very good school. Academically at least. Given that I left there 17 years ago now (eek!) I would hope that their pastoral care is a hell of a lot better now, since they adopted a "don't care, she's quiet, let her just get on with it" attitude to my obvious, but then diagnosed Aspergers.
Dennis Richards became the head teacher of the school, if my memory serves me correctly, when I was in the third year in the mid-late nineteen eighties. During the four years (last two years of main school and two years of sixth form that he was the HT whilst I was educated there he was fair, open, non judgementary and, as far as I could pick up, non discriminatory. No comments about the length of skirts or other items of clothing were made, other than to demand that sixth form boys wore a shirt and smart trousers.
So, it's possible that in the past nearly two decades he has changed a lot, but the description of him as some bloke guiltily leering at teenage girls and then placing the blame on them for it does not equate with how he seemed when I was there.

Sorry, then undiagnosed Aspergers.

I think it is sexist that boys wear trousers and girls wear skirts. The school uniform should be the same.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I don't think that the school is at all saying 'if you wear a short skirt you are asking to be raped'. I think they are saying 'rolling up school skirts demeans you'.

I have to agree - and I don't think young inexperienced teenagers under the influence of peer pressure are in the best position to understand these things. I expect school to be a 'safe' place, with regards to unwanted sexual attention - and I would support a uniform that resisted 'tarting up'.

As a kid, I refused to go to my local catholic school. Every morning at the bus stop there'd be a gaggle of girls with their rolled up kilts getting leered at by the lads. It made the school seem like a meat market. I went to my local no-uniform comp, and enjoyed wearing mismatched DocMartens and hippy skirts!

"I expect school to be a 'safe' place, with regards to unwanted sexual attention "

Me too.

The way to make girls safe, is to make sure that boys and male teachers aren't allowed to harrass them.

Why are people confusing the fact that:

1. girls not wearing short skirts is a good thing for everyone (everyone agrees on this: girls are in school to study)

and

2. the fact this is a good thing has nothing whatsoever to do with them 'being at risk'. That's just the worryingly sexist projection of a headmaster's fantasy/blame issues and the way he sees teenage girls.

i partly agree with the mainstream of the thread but LOL about it not being appropriate to wear gymslips to school, gymslips being surely the original school uniform?

Nostalgia for my school where our constant fight was to be able to wear trousers. I reacted to having to wear skirts by wearing an unbelievably old cotton dress of my sister's which was ankle length but so worn out that it was completely transparent and full of holes. Large chunks of my torso and legs were visible.

In the end, however, despite the obvious problems with his reasoning, I sympathise too much with head teachers having to impose a dress code of some kind (even in non-uniform schools) and think that all parents should support the head teacher without exception if they want their child at the school, provided nothing illegal or actively dangerous is going on.

I think one problem is that short skirts in the adult world are worn by

a) women who are trying to look sexy and atract a chap, or
b) women who want to follow fashion and look good, and are quite confident in their ability to tell a man who interprets it as a come-on / license to molest that it's not.

Neither of which group we can reasonably expect a school girl to fall into.

ergo, banning mini skirts until the sixth form seems wuite reasonable to me.

maktaitai, there is no way I would support a sexist policy in school, anymore than I would support a racist one. There should be no place in schools for racism or sexism.

Riven, schools could tackle sexual harrassment exactly the same way as they do racial harrassment - with policies of zero tolerance.

I think they are at risk of being seen as lightweight, irrelevant slappers - just at the point of their lives where we want our daughters to grow a backbone, and set themselves up as confident, intelligent women.

Teenage boys do make innuendo and lewd comments to teenage girls.

Clearly, at this school skirt shortening has become the mainstream.

Like I said, I went to a school with a large hippy and goth contingent. There were some very ballsy girls there - think combat trousers and facial piercings - that gave back as good as they got to the twunts who were passing round girly mags.

A compulsory dress code + 'compulsory' (i.e. you'll get teased if you don't) skirt shortening: looks vulnerable and available and not empowering the girls to brush off this kind of crap.

On the radio I heard the headteacher (I tihnk) justifying the ban becasue the girls "don't realise that they are giving off subliminal messages"

I agree with those that have said that he should be doing more to address the males' (I was going to say "boys'" but realised he could also be concerned about the teachers) attitudes - inclusing his own - that the wearing of short skirts is automatically a subliminal message saying "I'm fair game"

What is he going to do when the girls start wearing skin tight trousers?

As someone said, the logical extension of what he has said is that the girls should wear burqas - that way, they can't give off any messages

I fail to see why the onus is on the girls to not dress 'provocatively', although I agree that the school could enforce a strict uniform policy (ie no shortening skirts or whatever).

How hard is that to implement? My school did. we even had to wear regulation socks fgs!

But why deny girls choice? I would have chosen a skirt given a choice, I just think they look smarter. And we had no boys at school to 'attract' anyway!

HerBeatitude, I think his reasoning is sexist, but the result is anything but - all members of the school wear the same uniform and it is appropriate work wear. I could certainly support that.

As a teacher, I know it is easier to get in contact with parents and tell them that skin-tight fashion trousers their daughter is wearing are unsuitable for school and could they please buy some tailored ones than it is to persistently try to get the girls to keep their skirts a decent length. Even if you get them to unroll them in front of you, you know that they're only going to roll them up again as soon as they leave the classroom.

And for people banging on about how the male teachers shouldn't be harassing the poor female students...as a female teacher I am fed up of catching sight of girls' knickers. When you are stood at the front of a class and they are all sitting facing you, you can't help but sometimes get a view that you'd rather not. I feel sorry for my male colleagues who, if faced with this have the added pressure that they might be accused of something unsavoury if they tell the girls to sort it out.

The girls themselves may be unaware that they are flashing more than they intend.

Hmm, my instinct when I first heard about this was pretty much the same as the OP's i.e. how very dare he? But my understanding is this affects girls in Yrs 7-10 i.e. 12-15 year old children. Just reading through the "let girls be girls" MN campaign, I tend to think that this falls under the same remit i.e. children are feeling pressurised to dress in a sexualised way.

From the campaign:

◦In 2007, a study by the American Psychological Association found that: "Sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development." Possible ongoing effects identified by the research include: low self-esteem, poor academic performance, depression, and eating disorders such as anorexia. The report also warned that sexualisation may contribute to the prevalence of paedophilia.

◦A 2008 study by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation found that premature sexualisation and pressure to grow up too quickly are two "key influences" in the anxiety felt by girls.

◦The Mental Health Foundation said: "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being. We are creating a generation under stress."

So isn't the Head Teacher doing what we are asking retailers to do? Or am I missing something?

"subliminal signals" FGS - Er, Headmaster dude, if they don't realise what signals they're sending out, maybe they're not "sending them out" at all? Maybe it's in the eye of the beholder.

Girls wear short skirts IME to look like their friends, to cheekily subvert the boredom of school uniform, and possibly in the hope that Jake in 12A will think they look fit. They are not doing it because they want Skeevy Headmaster to think they look totally hawt, or to impress the generality of boys and men with how they're up for it.

This kind of fucked up thinking is totally prevalent still, it's unbelievable. Because women in Afghanistan are totally protected from sexual assault aren't they? Oh no, wait, it's just been enshrined in law. Two seconds of thinking proves that changing what a woman or girl is wearing does not prevent sexual assault. If people can tell you're a woman, you're at risk from some blokes, wheter you're wearing a micro-mini or a sack.

No because he thinks that changing what girls wear will remove the problem, goldenticket. AS others have said, change the uniform to trousers by all means, but if you claim that skirts "put girls at risk" he is avoiding the real issue of sexual harrassment and assault. IME skirts are pieces of fabric, they never catcall and rarely grope passers-by.

hear hear - golden ticket.

I do not wear skirts above the knee to work. It is not because I fear that my male colleagues will not be able to restrain themselves. It is because I feel entitled to be respected as a professional - and I dress in a way that broadcasts my confidence in my skills and contribution. I expect my daughter's school uniform to put across the same message: "I'm here to learn".