Boys will be allowed to wear skirts at one of the UK’s leading boarding schools.
The exclusive £36,000-a-year public school said it will permit boys to wear skirts, amid claims that children are questioning their gender identities more than ever.
Richard Maloney, the headteacher of Uppingham School in Rutland, whose alumni include Stephen Fry and celebrity chef Rick Stein, said any boy asking to wear a skirt would find a sympathetic ear.
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He said he already tries to use the gender-neutral term “pupils” rather than “boys and girls”
RT reports: Richard Maloney, who joined Uppingham in September 2016, said: “I would hope that any pupil could come to me and say, ‘This is who we are, this is how we wish to express ourselves. We want to wear these clothes,’ and we would probably allow that,” he told the Sunday Times.
At Uppingham, boys currently wear trousers, and girls wear skirts. Gareth Doodes, headteacher of Devon College, said the school would not introduce unisex uniforms, but that it had worked to create a setting where children do not feel divided or excluded because of what they wear at school. He added:
“I don’t think it’s about gender neutrality, but rather, allowing pupils to express themselves fully in an environment with is safe and supportive.”
It follows reports that a record number of children are doubting their gender identity. When the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at London’s Tavistock Clinic opened in 1989, it received two referrals. Last year, 1,400 children under 18 were referred there – double the number of the year before. Nearly 300 were under the age of 12, with some as young as three years old.
Niamh Harris
fckn freaks to the left of me, freaks to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle of this shit
Why is it always the ugly ones?
Well, maybe that’s not a bad idea for early adolescence. Plenty of ball and wang room.
I guess its so they can more easily finger each others bum holes…… smelly little shibags they are