While that story made me laugh, the other left me speechless.
What on Earth was the Henderson High School deputy principal thinking when she told a group of 15-year-old students they had to lower the length of their skirts so as not to attract sexual attention from not only male students, but male teachers?
Good grief. Why didn't she just say, "these are the school uniform rules, please follow them"? Easy.
To suggest that all the males at the school can't concentrate on learning or teaching because they can see female knees is just ludicrous, and if I were one of the males at the school I would be highly offended.
Principal Mike Purcell says the rules are "regularly enforced to ensure that all students and teachers can focus on their learning and feel comfortable in the school environment".
He said families were told about the rules when they enrolled students and the rules state female students' skirts must be on the knee.
That's fine. I understand all that. What I don't understand is a deputy principal telling these impressionable young girls that if they show their knees they are attracting the wrong kind of attention.
I do hope the males at the school, teachers and students, ensure shorts worn in class and on the sport fields cover their knees because we wouldn't want the girls to get the wrong idea about them.
This really is insulting to both sexes: the females because this kind of message says they can't step outside their door without covering themselves from head to toe in case a man gets the wrong idea about them, and the males because, according to the deputy principal, one look at any part of the female anatomy above the knee and they lose control.
There are men out there who prey on women. We've all read stories about women being attacked, but men who do this (the majority of men would never dream of it) don't give a hoot about what someone is wearing. I don't know how they pick their victims - I imagine some are random and others are well planned - but I doubt very much knees ever come into it.
What sort of message does this send to young girls: all men are not to be trusted and it's your job to make sure they aren't sexually tempted?
That's just rubbish. Yes, follow the school uniform rules but do it because those are the rules, and not to protect the males from themselves.
Be proud of yourself and love the body you have, no matter what shape or size it is - that's what they need to hear.
- Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.
