Schools banning skirts.

I know what you mean Teetime but really it could be the sensible answer to different things.
There is the upskirting issue, gender issue, and it would end the practise of girls wearing mini skirts and worrying about how thin their legs are etc.
Trousers are comfortable and practical.

I'm with you Teetime . What a ridiculous idea.

I appreciate the points you made Lemongrove but perhaps they could concentrate their energies on dealing with any up skirting issues , take a gender issue case by case and enforce appropriate skirt lengths instead of taking a blanket , one size fits all approach?

They could do that Nana but it will be a world of faff, and having seen girls here going to school with skirts clinging to just below the bum level, I think trousers is a pretty good idea all round.Schools will all have different views and do different things no doubt.

If this is a way to accommodate trans students I 'd like to know why they plan to reduce choice.
A young man transitioning to female may well be looking forward to choosing a skirt rather than trousers.
I take the point about miniskirts and upskirting but am saddened by this dictatorial approach.

We weren't allowed to wear trousers to school. My hideous pleated skirt was turned over and over at the waist to make it shorter! How times change!

Not sure I like the idea of banning skirts though and agree with NanaandGrampy

There was a time not so long ago when girls and women were banned from wearing trousers at school/work.

Why should traditionally-female clothes be the ones that are banned? Why can't skirts be considered gender-neutral ?

I think it's sex discrimination to appease a tiny noisy minority We should stand up for the rights of schoolgirls to wear what they wish, within the normal rules of length, suitability etc.

As for 'upskirting' ……. some boys/men can't behave in a civilised manner and not take indecent photographs, so schoolgirls should wear trousers?

I like to think that school students would have a choice. Our high school has a selection of uniform pieces, and the children can wear what they like - skirt, shorts, trousers, it's up to them.

My granddaughter tells me that a few of the boys are wearing a skirt and "it's OK with everyone". If the kids can be laid-back about it, I'm sure that the rest of us can too.

I must admit I haven't worn a skirt for years. I wouldn't go back to them either. Trousers are so much more practical and comfortable. So I agree with Lemon on this one. The universal wearing of trousers would address a number of current issues. I wonder if skirts will be worn at all in, say, 25 years' time. Old fashioned and discriminatory, that's what I think.

Good points Blinko. I wish trousers had been uniform for boys, girls and those who have liberated themselves from the constraints of gender when I was a girl and when my children were in school uniforms.
Trousers are more practical and must help avoid the nonsense surrounding skirt lengths. I’m sure there will be similar nonsense around what constitutes a suitable pair of trousers and what resembles thick black tights.
We are so uniform obsessed. Children in other countries manage well without uniforms. Their behaviour and exam results are often better as well
I do accept tho that in our homeland, attainment goes hand in hand with strict uniform policy.

I’m also in the ‘ridiculous ‘ camp.
As far as disrespecting women and girls in skirts, then the attitude of boys and men needs to be changed. Not society change to accommodate warped minds!
For the past 2 weeks I’ve worn dresses to keep cool. On very hot days shorts won’t even do.
So we bring up a generation of women who are given no choice and are dictated to and told wear trousers. Now where have I heard of that philosophy before??
On a personal note, my school uniform included thick navy blue bloomers! That might be the answer.

I had the navy blue bloomers too. Always had a handkerchief tucked in them.lol.???

Although like everybody else I wear trousers a lot of the time now I am not sure they are really the healthiest option for women blame Mrs Bloomer! As for being made to wear trousers - here we go again why should it be the girl's uniform that is changed how about kilts all round.

Up the kilt <b>riverwalk</b> ! I am just longing for some smart arse to upskirt me when I am wearing mine, his iPhone could end up completely disappearing !!!!!

Actually this weather there is NOTHING smarter or cooler (in the similar to cold but less so meaning) than a kilt

Some of the skirts on girls I see around here going to school are very short. In the 1960s when I was at secondary school, we would fold our skirts over and over when we came out of school so that they were tiny. So we were the same.

I think girls should wear trousers to school. I remember how i felt at school, with boys making lewd comments about our legs, and the fact that we wore blacking stockings. My 5 year old granddaughter wears a skirt for PE but it has shorts built in, so if she's throwing her legs over her head she is not showing her pants. Why should girls have to wear something that boys boys don't?

sorry "black" stockings

I wasn't happy when my GD's school said if they wore skirts they should have "modesty " shorts under them ?? This is primary age children,for heavens sake.Let the mothers of boys make sure they know its not acceptable to look up girls skirts or lift them up.Pants were more than adequate as far as I was concerned and I made sure the school knew that.As did a lot of parents too.They changed their mind .
Isn't it time we stopped worrying about boys being unable to control themselves and started making sure they learned how to

IMO it's sexist and unfair to make the traditionally male option the only choice. They should all be free to choose.

Not exactly the point, I know, but around here one senior school's black uniform trousers, which I see on both boys and girls, almost invariably look dreadful, ill fitting and so scruffy.

By contrast, a different (state) girls' school uniform skirts look so much better.

The thing I don't like about this is that by forbidding girls to wear skirts at school, schools are shrugging off the responsibility of teaching their pupils that looking up a girl or woman's skirt is unacceptable.

I have no trouble with schools' stating what length of skirt they find acceptable. Yes, we turned down the tops of our school skirts on the way home when mini-skirts came in, but we knew they had to touch the floor when we knelt during school hours.

Here in Denmark where we do not have school uniforms there has been a running battle for years between schools and parents regarding teenage girls displaying their bare midriffs, or about half of their bosoms and boys displaying half of their bare bottoms, when it was fashionable to wear trousers at "half-mast".

A male colleague asked me to have a word with the mother of a fourteen year old girl who wore mini-skirts and sat with her knees apart. He was scared silly, he would be accused of inappropriate behaviour, as he could see the crotch of her panties! I obliged, and the girl's mother was offended, even although I pointed out that we were not criticising her daughter's behaviour in any way, but that male teaching staff are very concerned these days, and rightly so, that they might be accused of impropriety.

Lemongrove Agree and what would be an appropriate skirt length.? For whom ? If a female wants her skirt to skim her backside then this 'appropriate' length could be hoisted up to accommodate her requirements. Trousers are the answer.

Tesco and Sainsbury are now selling summer school uniform that are like culottes, and all in one, (bottom half is shorts, top half as in dress) in gingham. The nickname for these are 'handstand' dresses. The only down side is that a child has to take the dress down to use the bathroom.
I am against banning skirts, I wear them all the time, and think parents and schools should teach children that it's wrong to lift up or look up girls skirts. If this is taught at an early age, with a punishment for transgressors, then reinforced through out school there might be less trouble later on.

I don't mind this at all. Yes, in the 60's we rolled our skirts up, and they still do it. When I am out in town when school lets out, it's ME that objects to seeing every school girl's a**e walking in front of me. Perhaps trousers for most of the year, and school uniform shorts for the summer.

Many years ago when my daughter was at middle school (she is 50 now), her uniform was a skirt. During a bitterly cold winter, she asked the school if the girls could wear trousers to keep warm. This was refused so she wrote to the Equality Commision, or whatever it was then called, but did not get what she thought was a satisfactory reply.