Boys Banned From Wearing Shorts At School Wear Skirts Instead

The boys wore the skirts to cool off, but also to comment on their school's discriminatory dress code.
From: NewNowNext

 When a group of four male students showed up to Longhill High School in Brighton, UK wearing non-regulation shorts on the hottest day of the year, they were turned away and told to return the next day in proper uniform attire.

Instead of complying by donning the school’s official trousers, however, the boys decided to use the school’s gender-neutral uniform code to their advantage by showing up in skirts.

The teenagers, Michael Parker, Kodi Ailing, George Boyland and Jesse Stringer, wore the skirts partially as a joke but also to make a statement about a dress code that has no summer option for male students.

While teachers and female students are permitted to wear shorts and skirts during the summer, boys are only allowed to wear long pants, which students and parents alike believe is particularly unreasonable given the school’s lack of air conditioning and the recent spate of 90-degree heat.

Speaking to the Metro, Parker’s mother Angela said, “On Tuesday, the hottest day of the year so far, several of the boys…[were] told they [were] not allowed to wear shorts, even though girls are allowed to wear short skirts with bare legs and stay cool.”

She went on to say that the dress code is “discriminatory against boys,” calling the regulations “hypocritical” as “male teachers were wearing shorts and t-shirts” when the male students were reprimanded.

Head of school Kate Williams has since responded that it’s perfectly acceptable for the boys to wear skirts to school, saying, “Students can choose to wear any part of the agreed school uniform.”