School uniform shift in U.K.

allows
students to express own identity
By Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian, adapted by Newsela staff on 06.23.16
Word Count 728

St. Brendan High School students Lohena Cabrera (left), Jonathan Edwards (center) and Kaitlin Isenberg walk outside of
their school in Miami, Florida, in this 2007 file photo. Many school administrators are giving up the fight over skirt lengths
either by issuing a traditional jumper or eliminating the argument with uniform pants. AP/Alan Diaz

Girls in skirts and boys in pants. This has been the story of school uniforms for centuries in
the United Kingdom. Now the rules appear to be relaxing: 80 schools across the U.K. have
introduced new policies allowing girls to wear pants and boys to wear skirts.

“We introduced the policy more than a year ago,” said Paula Weaver, the principal at
Allens Croft primary, or elementary, school in Birmingham, England. Her school was the
first public primary school in the country to adopt a gender-neutral uniform policy. The
rules and choices are now exactly the same for both boys and girls.

"Children are expected to wear a uniform, but they can wear whatever part of that uniform
they want,” Weaver says.

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A Skirt Uniform And A Trousers Uniform

Other schools are removing specific references to boys' and girls' uniforms in their dress
codes. “This year we’ve gone from a girls’ uniform and a boys’ uniform to a skirt uniform
and a trousers uniform,” assistant principal Liana Richards explains. Richards works at
Uplands Community College, a high school in East Sussex, England.

The U.K. is made up of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

For Richards, the change is about recognizing the rights of students who do not fit easily
into society's ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl. Some students feel they were
born in the wrong body, and were really meant to be the other sex. Others are girls who are
attracted to girls, or boys who are attracted to boys.

Some students are uncomfortable with the standard gender roles that force people to "act
out" maleness or femaleness in one particular and narrow way. They simply may not want
to act like society says a "normal" boy or girl should. For them, gender is not a
straightforward choice between being and acting male or female. Instead, it is more
complicated than that.

Not That Big Of A Deal For Students

So far, the students at Uplands have taken to the changes without much fuss.

"It’s less of a big deal to the students than you might think," Richards said. "We haven’t
seen that much difference yet, although some girls have made the conscious decision to
wear the trousers uniform, which has to be worn with a tie.”

The new dress code is part of a countrywide, government-funded drive to support lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children in schools. Among other things, the goal is
to make schools more open to children who are questioning the gender role society
expects of them.

In January, the private school Brighton College scrapped uniform rules for transgender
students. Such students identify as the opposite sex. Many are in the process of changing
their sex, with the help of doctors.

Responding To School System's Failings

The new effort to better serve LGBT students is a response to the school system's failings.
Research by Educate and Celebrate, a group that gives LGBT training to school staff,
found that 53 percent of schools do not teach about LGBT relationships. Forty-nine
percent do not teach the definitions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

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Allens Croft is one of a number of schools praised by Educate and Celebrate for its
gender-neutral uniform policy. The new policy is in line with the beliefs and values of the
school, Weaver explains. It ties in with the school's efforts to stop gay, lesbian and
transgender students from being bullied.

The school is trying in many ways to make its students more accepting of LGBT kids. Such
children are not comfortable with their gender role that society says is normal.

"We believe that children have the right to express their own identity in a way that is most
comfortable for them,” Weaver says.

"It's About Giving Them Choice"

Weaver says parents have not been upset by the dress-code changes. “The thing is, we’re
not insisting on anyone doing anything. It’s not about influencing children, it’s about giving
them choice.”

What about the students? Are they turning up in every uniform combination under the sun?
Apparently not.

“We still have the battle with children who don’t wear a uniform,” Weaver says. “We still
have more trouser-wearing across the board than boys wearing skirts. But that’s about
what’s seen as acceptable in society and you know what? We need to work on that, too.”

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