Schoolgirls in tears after teacher measures their skirts - thoughts?

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

This happened at the Rainford High School in St. Helens, United Kingdom - female students have been sent home with the threat of expulsion when a male teacher measured their skirts and found some to be too short or too long.

Now the parents are the protesting and considering suing the school, while their daughters face additional sanctions and possible expulsion because of this.

-

I don't know exactly what to make of this situation. The school my wife and I frequented had similar uniforms, and I remember some girls like my wife "clipping" their skirts during the summer to make them shorter, and nobody said anything about it. On the other hand, I've learned that now girls that go to my former school can choose whenever to wear skirts or slacks like the boys.

[WindAtMyBack]

This was completely standard when I was in school. We had a dress code, one of which was skirt length for girls. The skirt length was measured with the girl sitting on her ankles, which pulled the skirt higher. The skirt could be no more than four inches above her knees.

I only know of one time a girl who was actually measured. She was a girl from another state with less restrictive rules. She was told not to wear that skirt to school again.

Several years later when I was in the 9th grade they relaxed the dress code. Girls were allowed to wear pants. Guys were allowed to have hair length below the shirt collar, and below the top of the ears. I was one of three guys with longish hair then. If the rules didn't change I probably would have been suspended at any time.

Long hair in the 60s and 70s was a statement as much as current style. It was a statement to stop worrying about stupid trivial shit that doesn't matter.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

So at first, guys weren’t allowed to wear hippy hair? Man, that’s messed-up.

[WindAtMyBack]

@HippieVeganJewslim
Yea.

Hair had to be above the collar of a shirt and above the ears. You'd get suspended from school for hair that was longer than allowed. Where I lived the rules were relaxed in the 1970-71 school year. A bunch of other dress codes were relaxed at the same time. In other places it happened earlier or later than that.

In the 60s and well into the 70s, a LOT of people absolutely hated long hair. It was rebellious to have long hair then. By the mid to late 70s it had become very common and was more accepted. Before that you WOULD have people (strangers) make insulting comments about it. Sometimes we'd have people yell out windows of cars at us, or even throw beer bottles at us.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

WTF? Oy vey, that is so hairist! If those rules existed in my setting, I’d take the Nazirite Oath (no hair cutting/combing, no eating grapes, no touching dead humans) from the Book of Numbers, like Bob Marley, and would rather be expelled than cut my hippy hair. Nu, many people use religion as an excuse. My mum baptised three of her kids just so she wouldn’t have to vaccinate them. Those twats that hated long hair should mind their own effing business. Cheers.

[RavVid]

I have been told that girls try to keep the same school dress because as they grow taller the skirt hem gets shorter and the bodice tighter. The girl who told me this said she cried when the school dress got so worn it just ripped.

My view is that it is reasonable. The point of a uniform is that it is uniform. So skirt lengths should be uniform. The sex of the teacher enforcing the rule is irrelevant but of course it will be cast as some form sexual violation. Female students sometimes threaten male teachers with sexual accusations.

[Adaeva]

Private schools can have dress codes and the students know the dress codes. However, the punishment for violating the dress codes should be mild such as being sent home to change clothes and/or detention for an hour after school and more severe such as expulsion for numerous repeated violations.

[DubiousIntentions]

Suck it up Buttercup. I had mine measured too. The rules seemed to change every few years. Today I have no idea what the rules are judging by some of the school girls I've seen. But as you might expect, they have become more liberal as can be seen by the teen pregnancies that are rising.

[DarkLegacy]

Lol you really have problems in the USA. They are at record lows here in the UK

[DubiousIntentions]

@DarkLegacy Maybe English women don't know how to have sex then?

[DarkLegacy]

Nope, just contraception and education.

[DubiousIntentions]

@DarkLegacy The girls here are too busy texting in class to learn sex ed.

[DarkLegacy]

@dubiousintentions Well some are like that here of course.

[OlderAndWiser]

If there is a rule or policy about uniforms and the students know it, then I have very little sympathy for a student who knowingly violates the rule and is caught.

[NamerOfStars]

That... that doesn't make sense. Okay, the girls violated the uniform policy and punishment is warranted, fair enough- but if the violation is so questionable that it has to be MEASURED to be sure, then threatening expulsion is a ludicrous overreaction. And if that's the issue, then why would it be a problem that a skirt was too LONG? I could understand that being an issue if this was a factory with heavy manufacturing equipment, but it's a SCHOOL.

I think there's more going on here than you've been told.

[Anonymous]

Rules are rules but the male teacher should have known better, its honestly not worth his job and kinda creepy.

When I was at school girls were the same, they even used to roll their skirts down at the waist to show off more leg, unbutton shirt buttons etc. Girls will always push the rules.

[AngryCarl2]

And that was one of the few things that made school tolerable!

[HippieVeganJewslim]

Don’t You think some rules are unjust and biased?

[Opinion Owner]

@HippieVeganJewslim why have rules. Same rules for everyone.

[TrueConfection]

Now this is outrageous! Enforcing a uniform/dress code policy? What will they think of next? Here I was worried about people dying in wars, earthquakes, and from chemical spills... But this! Next they'll say something even more sinister like the students need closed toe shoes or a shirt buttoned up past their breasts.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

I went to a school that made us wear closed-toe shoes. Bloody mad!

[MuskratLove]

In America most schools don't have a dress code. But you best not be wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on it. You're out!

[purplepoppy]

No male teacher with half a brain would want to get involved with skirt measuring. Therefore we have to conclude he doesn't have a half a brain.

[MuskratLove]

Something tells me that him measuring skirts, had nothing to do with the dress code..

[slatyb]

These dress codes are disgusting excuses for humiliating girls.

[AviatorTom]

Many schools today have dress codes that are published and distributed to students and parents. Most of those codes specify how short a skirt can be.

[Nikki1989]

I read about this. It is disgusting that this can happen in this day and age.

[AngryCarl2]

It's a form of abuse. Teachers are sexualizing the kids, whether intentionally or not.

[AngryCarl2]

It's also sexist. Why do they never measure the boys trousers?

[HippieVeganJewslim]

So no-one would give a crap if I were to wear short shorts? I agree with You, sexist as fuck.

[NamerOfStars]

"Sexualizing high school kids" is like "setting the sun on fire"- you can't do what they're already doing to themselves, man.

Beyond that specific point, how exactly is "enforcing uniform standards" sexualization?

[AngryCarl2]

@NamerOfStars Let's not pretend the rules about skirt length aren't sexually motivated.

[Juxtapose]

In no free country should such restrictions exist.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

In no free country should religious headcover be banned in šā’allāh. People can wear kippas, hijābs, turbans, and kufis.

[LiamJHayden]

What? If they had to be measured in order to discern if they were out of standard they should have just let it slide. And what creepy dude measures teen girls skirts? That pervert should be fired.

[jshm2]

Rules are rules. You should know that as a corrupt politician.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Actually I've never been indicted of corruption but I did get indicted and acquitted for abuse of office and discrimination.
The gal that prosecuted is facing charges of corruption, ironically enough.

[DarkLegacy]

Happened to my Mother when she was in school in the 50s, so what of it. But i can see how it is humiliating and degrading.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

Finding skirts to be too short is fine, but finding them to be too long? WTF? That’s mad and unkosher. UK ain’t a totalitarian state.

[NostalgiaSenpi]

If the dress code has a certain length and you're enrolled there, you have to abide by it.

[MysticDevice]

And they wonder why their Colonies rebelled.