A school in Wales has summarily excluded 200 pupils from classes because of their short skirts and makeup. Parents are up in arms against the new headmaster’s measures.
There is a stir at a school in Monmouthshire, Wales: up to 200 girls have been denied access to classes because their skirts were too short or they were wearing make-up. This measure is apparently part of a rigorous enforcement of school uniform regulations by the new, already controversial headteacher, as the Daily Mail reports.
The length of the skirts was measured, false eyelashes were removed, fingernails were trimmed and make-up was removed. The headmaster had previously sent a letter to the parents insisting that the skirts had to be “knee-length” and that no make-up was allowed. Parents complain that girls in particular are affected by these strict rules.
Some students told the Daily Mail about unpleasant situations in which they were confronted with wet wipes to remove their make-up and nail clippers to trim their fingernails. “Pupils will not be allowed to walk around the school if these rules are not followed,” the headteacher warned in his letter to parents.
The BBC reports on a 14-year-old girl who was asked by a male teacher to measure her skirt. When she refused, she was sent to a room where other students were held, prevented from attending class, and eventually sent home for wearing false eyelashes.
“It seems that girls’ bodies are more important than their right to education,” Rachel Garrick, Labour councillor in Caldicot, is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. She fears that the strict uniform regulations are aimed primarily at girls.
Recently there was a similar case in Austria, where students were told what they could and could not wear in class. Girls were particularly affected.
