Ask any kid who attended a uniform-required school, and they’ll tell you those extreme weather months were brutal. Girls who were forced to wear skirts in the winter froze, while boys sweated it out in pants in the hotter months. One teenage boy who attended Moffat Academy in Scotland, along with his fellow classmates, was sent home in June of 2021 for wearing shorts in the hot weather, according to the BBC.
The school’s officials told them that their dress code was strictly “trousers or a skirt,” despite the sweltering heat. With the support of his mom, Shane Richardson, 16, donned his little sister Lexi Richardson’s skirt in protest.
“There’s no air conditioning switched on in the classrooms just now because of Covid, so it’s really hot,” Richardson told The Daily Record at the time. “Like a few others, I was sent home for wearing shorts, so I decided to start wearing my sister Lexi’s skirt. The teachers haven’t said anything to me about wearing a skirt, and neither has the taxi driver who picks us up and takes us to school in the morning.”
His mother, Hayley Richardson, described the policy as “ridiculous” to the outlet and defended her son’s bold choice.
“Every single year when the weather gets hot, the boys go to school in shorts,” Hayley Richardson told the BBC at the time. “All of a sudden this rule is being hammered into the school…. The last two days, when it has been super hot, they have just sat in class, and it is almost like sitting in a greenhouse.”
In 2017, the Isca Academy in Exeter, England, held a similar protest where 30 boys showed up to school wearing skirts after they were told they weren’t allowed to wear shorts in 90-degree weather.
The Dumfries and Galloway Council, which runs the school, took the protest seriously and vowed to review the policy and to discuss changes.
“Feedback from young people, parents and carers to the school has indicated that it is time to review the policy and make changes,” the council stated.
Weeks later, on June 16, The Mirror reported that in a Zoom meeting, parents were officially informed that the school would be relaxing its policy and allowing students to wear shorts, so long as they continued to wear a white shirt and school tie.
“There had been some strong feelings about it, but after a consultation with young people, staff and parents, the dress policy has now been updated,” Parent Teacher Association chairman Alistair Tait told The Daily Record.
