‘Degrading’ U.K. School Accused of Spending Two Hours Measuring Girls’ Skirts
‘SYPHONED OFF’
Teachers at a secondary school on the Isle of Wight in the U.K. are accused of being “degrading” for spending two hours measuring dozens of girls' skirts to enforce a new uniform policy. Instructors at Ryde Academy are said to have “syphoned off” 70 girls and made them line up and have their skirts examined shortly after they were welcomed back to school this week. Those whose skirts were deemed too short were sent home. A parent told The Telegraph that the school requires female students to wear knee-length pleated skirts, but that it's difficult to find ones that are long enough and fit at the waist. “We bought the right skirts but it is a policy you can’t comply with because you can’t get one that long,” the parent told the UK newspaper. “So basically they were being judged on their body shape and size and it’s kind of pointing out to them you don’t fit into the clothes you can buy in the shops and that’s not what teenage girls need.” The school made no apologies for its teachers’ aggressive crackdown on the girls’ clothes, stating it had been “very clear about expectations on uniform and have shared these with families multiple times.”