An Aussie mum’s impassioned status about her daughter’s state high school has reignited debate many parents of teenage girls will be familiar with: What length should girls’ school dresses be?
“Our state high school has told their young female students in an assembly that their dress length is inappropriate. My daughter came home yesterday questioning and slightly ashamed. Luckily, she also came home angry,” blogger Sesame Ellis wrote in a Facebook post.
“My daughter’s knees are not a distraction. The length of her school dress is not a visual representation of her value in the classroom. In fact, her body is none of your business.”
Ellis slammed the school’s request, explaining “her body is none of your business.”
“The dress you make them wear is restrictive and puts the girls at a disadvantage to their male peers who wear shorts (that are shorter than the dress hems). The majority of these students ride a bike to and from school and can’t do so comfortably in a dress straight out of the 1950’s. They also can’t run around and play during recess and lunch in that dress,” she wrote.
“Girls deserve to be active on every day of the week, not just on sport uniform day. Today, she will hike that dress up over her knees further so she can ride her bike home in time to play for her undefeated all girls cricket team in the searing heat of the afternoon because she is a strong, determined and committed young woman. These girls, my daughter included, are proud to represent their school and do so with respect, compassion and grace.”
Many agreed with her, sharing their family’s experiences with the same issue.
“My daughter was ‘forbidden’ from going up on stage to collect her year 12 academic excellence award because her skirt was too short- their response to my furious email was pitiful,” one mother commented.
Top Comments
As a high school teacher I do not need/want to see girls' underwear as they walk up the stairs, I have seen plenty of girls who can't walk up the stairs without pulling/holding their skirt down. I have no problem with skirts above the knee, it's when the skirt is barely covering their bum that it's a problem. A problem further exacerbated by girls (and their parents) who sew up the pleats in their skirts so they are not just too short but so tight their movement is restricted and they can't sit down properly. Save the itty bitty skirts for outside of school.
People are so angry these days, their frustrations are on show every day.
It's practically imperative to be angry about something.
Nearly every story on this website has someone angry about something - babies wearing bands on their heads, teachers requesting civility at school makes people very angry, someone who objects to bringing the boob out to feed a baby in a public place creates a lot of anger.
Ridicule is something angry people use to prop up the anger. Traditional marriage supporters brought out much anger and ridicule from the SSM brigade.
And so it goes on. All that energy wasted in getting angry, but it's a signature of the 21st century.
Sad.