A New Zealand high school has been blasted by social media users for instructing its female students to lower their skirt hemlines because they were “distracting” for male teachers.
A group of 40 Year 11 students at Henderson High School in Auckland were summoned to a meeting by deputy principal Cherith Telford, who said their skirts would need to be lowered to knee length in order to “keep our girls safe, stop boys from getting ideas and create a good work environment for male staff”.
“Basically we were told that the skirts needed to be lowered to below our knees or we would be given detention after school,” Henderson student Sade Tuttle told Newshub.
Ms Telford’s remarks attracted a backlash from social media users who argued it was men’s responsibility to not be “distracted” by women’s sexuality, and that the focus on women’s skirt hemlines played into a culture of “victim blaming”.
But American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu sparked a heated debate on Twitter after admitting she agreed with Henderson High School’s new policy because men were by nature “attracted to women of child-bearing age” and society had a “responsibility to protect young ladies”.
“I agreed because I am aware that we live in a sex-driven society,” Ms Badu tweeted.
“It is everyone’s, male and female’s, responsibility to protect young ladies … one way to protect youth is to remind them we are all sexual in nature and as they grow and develop it is natural to attract men.”
Ms Badu continued: “It is not [young women] who are doing anything wrong by being beautiful and attractive, but with such imbalance in our society it is smart to be aware and awake. Men and women both go thru cycles of arousal. Men automatically are attracted to women of child-bearing age.”
‘Lady Gaga doesn’t work here’
Henderson High School is not the first to cop backlash for its policies on the length of students’ skirts.
A UK high school which removed skirts from its uniform entirely because girls were wearing them too short and apparently “distracting” male teachers drew further ire in September last year after also banning too-tight trousers.
“It’s not pleasant for male members of staff and students either, the girls have to walk up stairs and sit down and it’s a complete distraction,” Trentham High School headmistress, Dr Rowena Blencowe, said of students’ “inappropriately short” hemlines.
“After a while it stops being a uniform issue and starts becoming a safeguarding issue.”
Similarly, in 2013, female students at Northlakes High School in New South Wales were instructed not to wear their skirts “above the fingertips”, while wearing tights without skirts over the top was also banned.
The principal of nearby Warner’s Bay High School, Sharon Parkes, said some students were wearing the uniform incorrectly.
”I said to some girls who tried to wear tights without their skirt over the top: ‘Lady Gaga doesn’t work here and we’re not walking around in our underwear’,” Dr Parkes said.
Henderson High School has told media that principal Mike Purcell is unavailable for comment.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
These women must think men are stuck in the stone age, some women seem to think men are blubbering idiots who can't think of anything else but sex. Surely most male teachers are there to teach, not to think about how long or short a girls skirt is!
This is school. You are there to learn. I think uniforms are great (no difference between socio-economic status, save time thinking what to wear etc), if the principal says this is the length, then you follow the rules. The principal should have just said these are the rules without giving the reason, this is how we wear the uniform. End of story. Then there would not have been a furore.
I think teenage girls absolutely know they attract attention, I know I did. School is not the time or place to be acting on that though. Hormones are already inflamed without adding to it by flashing knickers!
And I doubt that the the male teachers are perving - but it could be making them uncomfortable and fearful of being labelled perves. I know a lot of adult men who are careful around underage girls or children for fear of this - bathing with their daughters with shorts on, not being left alone with teenage babysitter etc.
Agree very much with your last comment. I don't think actual perving is the issue as much as a girl showing off her thighs and possibly underwear making a male teacher feel very uncomfortable. It would make anyone uncomfortable. I mean. What about a teacher who is young and sexually inexperienced? Spontaneous arousal does happen and unfortunately it is very noticeable if you happen to have a penis!
And for fellow male students? If I recall, a gust of wind or something equally benign could result in an erection in a teenage boy?!?! I feel a bit sorry for them....
I know! A friend of mine got an erection in our English class. He was the popular class clown so he joked about it...I don't remember what he said but something about a 'boner'...Years later (we are still friends) he said told me her felt like bawling and thought the only way out was to draw attention to it and make a joke about it. He was mortified, poor thing...
I guess I am much more sympathetic to the plight of boys and men now that I am mother to two boys. They are such adorable sensitive creatures. They have their fair share of societal pressures, that's for sure...but I think the tide is turning...for all of our genders!