National Taichung Girls Senior High School students wore shorts to school yesterday or switched to shorts in front of the school to underscore their demand for the right to wear shorts.
Responding to a “wear shorts to school today” campaign on Facebook, students wore shorts or changed into them when they started arriving at school at 7am.
They were immediately marked down by drillmasters for violating school regulations on dress code. If marked down four times, the students receive a warning or are compelled to do school service.
During a flag-raising ceremony last week, scores of students removed their skirts to reveal shorts underneath, shouting: “Equal rights for men and women” and “It’s no sin to wear shorts.”
The students said that uniforms or sweatpants are too hot and that it is not convenient when they need to get changed. They questioned why the school would not allow them to wear shorts.
School principal Lu Pei-chuan (呂培川) said he respects the students’ views, but added that revisions to school regulations must follow relevant procedures.
The school issued a statement saying it has eased school regulations regarding dress code since 2013.
After Lu, who was previously the head of National Yuanlin Senior High School, assumed the post in August, he formed a dress etiquette task force to address the issue, which held its first meeting on Thursday last week.
Since the school has a mechanism for discussing the issue and the students can present their views through the school council, the issue should be discussed in a meeting of the task force, and the school, based on the principles of “respect, tolerance and pluralism,” will let the students fully express their views, it said.
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