Mum Claims Victory After School Agrees to Let Her Daughter Wear Shorts at School

A mum who petitioned for daughter to wear shorts at school claims victory after the school agreed to her call.

Mum Simone Cariss, from Melbourne, petitioned to the school of her six-year-old daughter, Asha, to let her daughter wear pants instead of a dress, which was imposed in the school’s uniform rules.

However, Ms Cariss received a good news from the school yesterday. “The principal called me (today) and said she hadn’t responded very well in the first place and that they would form a committee to discuss the changes and then roll them out,” she told Kidspot.

The Catholic school in Melbourne previously had refused Ms Cariss’s request for her daughter to wear pants as part of the winter uniform instead of the regulation wool tunic, a restriction she says affected her daughter. She was told that ‘the uniform serves its intended purpose and that there were no plans to review it any time soon’.

Ms Cariss said that wearing a dress prohibits her daughter from doing what she loves — running, jumping, and climbing like the boys.

Frustrated, Ms Cariss decided to raise awareness of the inequity. She wrote on a change.org petition posted Friday night.

“My daughter, like many other girls, simply wants the choice to wear pants like half her peers, with the warmth and freedom to be active at school and travelling. Dresses disadvantage girls like my daughter who want to play footy, run, climb and ride a bike to school. The boys get to wear pants and shorts, which facilitates these activities far better than a dress.”

Ms Cariss initially raised her complaint on the Facebook page of parenting expert and psychologist Steve Biddulph in April. Mr Biddulph advised her to take action. “Simone’s post about uniforms [on the Facebook page] attracted a lot of support, and in fact shock, that this issue had not been settled – many schools brought in uniform equality decades ago,” he told Kidspot.

Now, after the school decided to change its rules, Ms Cariss is urging the state governments in Victoria and around Australia to legislate against gender-specific uniforms.

Included in her change.org petition, she wrote:

“The purpose of this petition is for policy-makers to stand up and legislate that all schools that require students to wear a uniform must offer options that don’t discriminate based on gender. What is offered to one student should be offered to all. So, for my daughter, if she wants to wear a dress she can but is not forced to. If she wants to wear pants/shorts she has the choice (not just on sports days). And this needs to NOT be at the discretion of individual schools”.

The current legislation about gendered school uniforms in the Department of Education in Victoria states that “student dress codes must comply with human rights and anti-discrimination legislation by treating students equally [and] not treating students differently because of personal characteristics”.

However, it adds this disclaimer: “Dress codes with gender-specific requirements are not necessarily discriminatory. However, except in the case of single-sex schools, school councils are advised to develop, as far as practicable, dress-code requirements that are similar for both sexes. In general, where options are to be available, they should be available to all students.”

But for now, Ms Cariss and Asha are just happy about this victory which means that their school is now doing the job it is meant to do – being a social equaliser.

“It’s so archaic having one rule for boys and one rule for girls. If you want gender equality then you have to start when they’re young. It should be legislated everywhere,” Ms Cariss said.

Source: Kidspot.com.au and News.com.au