Gender neutral uniform sparks protest at Lewes Priory School

About 150 parents and pupils have staged a protest outside a secondary school over gender neutral uniforms.

Priory School in Lewes, East Sussex, made trousers compulsory for new and existing students for the new term.

The school said "concerns" had been raised over the length of girls' skirts and new rules also catered for a handful of transgender pupils.

Protesters have said pupils should have a choice to wear skirts, while others believe clothes are being wasted.

Former Priory student and TV presenter Piers Morgan tweeted his support for the protesters saying the "gender neutral craze" was out of control and girls should be girls, and boys should be boys.

The Conservative MP for Lewes, Maria Caulfield, also tweeted: "Very disturbed to see the school turning away girls from Priory school because they choose to wear a skirt and calling the police on them.

"This is not how we should be treating the young women of Lewes."

Libby Murray, who is in her final year, said the new rule meant clothes were going to be thrown away, which would contribute to the climate change crisis.

She also said removing the choice for pupils to wear skirts because some wear them too short was "unfair".

"Girls roll up their skirts but that can be solved by better policing of it."

She added: "To make it gender neutral they have to let everyone wear skirts or trousers and have that choice."

In 2017, the school introduced a trouser-only policy for new students. It brought in the blanket ban on skirts for all students on Friday.

In a statement, it said students not conforming to the new rule would be asked to return home and change before being allowed into the building.

Pupil Nina Cullen wore a skirt to school and was refused entry.

"I haven't bought the new uniform and I don't see the point in wasting money," she said.

During extremely hot weather pupils had previously been allowed to wear PE shorts or skorts - shorts made to look like skirts.

However, a letter sent to parents in June said the decision had "created more problems than we wished".

It said pupils not following the new rule was "detracting" staff from teaching.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-49599078

A'gender neutral' school uniform policy descended into chaos yesterday after police were called to stop pupils, who staged a protest, from attending classes.

Up to 100 pupils and parents gathered at Priory School in Lewes in a silent protest, after the school sent out a letter at the end of the summer term requiring all students to wear trousers.

The change to uniform policy, which the school claimed would “address inequality” was met with outrage as parents said the rule made female pupils feel “awful”.

Female students held up banners that read “choice” while a number of male students turned up in skirts.

Roughly fifty pupils in old uniforms were turned away from the gate, with two community police officers on site to aid the school during the dispute.

Parents said that the new uniform, which was introduced in a bid to be inclusive, was not “gender neutral”.

Sheila Cullen, 56, whose daughter Nina Cullen is entering the last year in which uniform is compulsory said: “It’s not a gender neutral uniform, it’s a male uniform.

“A gender neutral uniform would allow boys to wear skirts and girls to wear skirts and both to wear trousers.”

“The crux of the matter is they’re obsessed with the length of girls’ skirts.”

She added that the new uniform costs £111.90 and that forcing young girls to wear trousers didn’t account for issues with “body confidence”.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/06/pupil-protest-gender-neutral-uniform-policy-sees-police-called/

Some time ago they were forcing Girls to wear Skirts !
Some Head teachers are behaving like little Hilers !

Forcing everyone to wear trousers is the wrong way to go about having "gender neutral" uniforms...

This school's attempted solution reeks of both past Maoist and Fascist totalitarian ways of enforcing dress codes..

A much fairer way of having completely "gender free" uniform choices would be to make the selection of uniform trousers, skirts and shorts available to every student there ?

Or else they stick to 'gender based' uniform guidelines..

When they had this problem a couple of years back, one of my Grandsons and a friend went in their Moms Skirts. They got sent home by a grinning Teacher !

At my stepdaughter's school, they still insist she wear a skirt or a dress, not even shorts which look perfectly suitable for a girl. And they pull random bullshit like insisting that Year 3's wear ties that tie properly, which is a massive choking hazard and which we're refusing to go along with.

I'm all for choice in school uniforms. Schools should be about teaching children, not controlling their lives, right?

I agree with school uniforms for many reasons but this is just going too far. As Ben said, my daughter wasn’t allowed to wear shorts because shorts are “part of the boy’s uniform”. She wore them with tights and everything else she was supposed to wear so I didn’t see the problem.

This school is out of order. It’s simply pandering to transgender pupils and that’s not fair. If transgender girls want to wear trousers then let them, that’s fine, but making other girls wear them? Totally wrong.

I hope the parents win this battle.

Both of my daughter's would have refused to wear trousers that were compulsory on the grounds that when on their period, there is a real likelihood of embarrassing stains showing through, which would be less likely or obvious with a skirt.

Andy wrote:Both of my daughter's would have refused to wear trousers that were compulsory on the grounds that when on their period, there is a real likelihood of embarrassing stains showing through, which would be less likely or obvious with a skirt.

Not necessarily Andy, stains can still show on a skirt, in fact, it’s probably worse.

My youngest always wore trousers until she was in blossom, then she would wear skirts.
In fact she still does.

Regardless, the head teacher is a sexist dinosaur. Why SHOULD girls have to wear trousers?
An equal case could be made for boys to wear skirts as we as the girls.

Andy wrote:My youngest always wore trousers until she was in blossom, then she would wear skirts.
In fact she still does.

Regardless, the head teacher is a sexist dinosaur. Why SHOULD girls have to wear trousers?
An equal case could be made for boys to wear skirts as we as the girls.

I think trousers and skirts should be a choice made by everyone.

oooh...doesnt Andy like it when the lefty idyll is played to its extreme....

THIS is the society you wish for, happening right now under your nose...enforced "little grey men in little grey boxes living little grey lives etc etc etc " we all gotta be the same and of course all nice little obedient leftys

this is what total enforced equality looks like, all you need now is that they all must wear the exact same "quality"

NO room for individualism , crush the individual, crush all independent thinking.....and start in the lefty controlled, lefty influenced and lefty run education system

Victorismyhero wrote:oooh...doesnt Andy like it when the lefty idyll is played to its extreme....

THIS is the society you wish for, happening right now under your nose...enforced "little grey men in little grey boxes living little grey lives etc etc etc "  we all gotta be the same and of course all nice little obedient leftys

Being forced into boxes is something I’m particularly worried about.
Ain’t happening to my kids. Not under my watch.

Victorismyhero wrote:this is what total enforced equality looks like, all you need now is that they all must wear the exact same "quality"

NO room for individualism , crush the individual, crush all independent thinking.....and start in the lefty controlled, lefty influenced and lefty run education system

+1

too late...they will be "educated" into compliance and all independence removed from them....the lefty state RELIES on compliant and dependent drones

Victorismyhero wrote:too late...they will be "educated" into compliance and all independence removed from them....the lefty state RELIES on compliant and dependent drones

And not forgetting various ultra-conservative far-right and Islamist states that followed the same dictatorial methodologies :

1930s Germany and fascist Italy;
Japan before WWII;   Haiti under 'Baby Doc' Duvalier;  
Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia..

Forcing populations into conformity and obedience certainly isn't confined to your dreaded ultra-left, that you like to blame for most of your woes.

There should have been more consultation and they should have phased the new rule in slowly - say over a year. Apart from anything, it must be annoying for parents who have already bought uniforms to have to go buy the new style ones.

wolfie...it is today

Jules wrote:There should have been more consultation and they should have phased the new rule in slowly - say over a year. Apart from anything, it must be annoying for parents who have already bought uniforms to have to go buy the new style ones.

no, there should NOT have been more consultation OR a "phasing in"

it should never have been mooted in the first place since it is nothing more than lefty pandering to a ridiculous ideal.

The problem is that we have now become so cowed by being condemned as some sort of "ist" or "phobe" that no-one dare make any comment that might be construed as even mildly critical of any almost human characteristic or foible dreamed up by "self-identifiers."

Authorities in particular seem to be so terrified of being "outed" by minorities that they seemingly rush almost thoughtlessly to impose rules enforcing everyone to comply with lifestyle "choices" no matter how limited and barking mad they may be.

If this madness continues, LGBTQ will soon have to be expanded to contain every letter in the alphabet.

Fred Moletrousers wrote:The problem is that we have now become so cowed by being condemned as some sort of "ist" or "phobe" that no-one dare make any comment that might be construed as even mildly critical of any almost human characteristic or foible dreamed up by "self-identifiers."

Authorities in particular seem to be so terrified of being "outed" by minorities that they seemingly rush almost thoughtlessly to impose rules enforcing everyone to comply with lifestyle "choices" no matter how limited and barking mad they may be.

If this madness continues, LGBTQ will soon have to be expanded to contain every letter in the alphabet.

It's your choice. If you wanna be cowed, be my guest. Y'all don't cow at starting wars, kidnapping, rape, torture, concentration camps and caging innocent children. I don't know when all this cowing started.