Teen Boy Wears Skirt to Protest School’s Anti-Shorts Policy

A 13-year-old boy in the U.K. decided to wear a skirt to his high school to protest its pants-only policy, the BBC reported.

Sandy Page said her son Toby wants Farlingaye High School in Suffolk to reconsider its uniform policy to allow students to wear shorts during the summer.

The school, which has around 2,000 students, disciplined a group of boys who wore shorts last week in spite of the school's dress code.

Students have since set up a petition asking the school to reconsider its policy because they "could not concentrate due to the sweltering temperatures."

"Why is there one rule for girls and another for boys?" Toby reportedly asked his mom. She said he had asked a friend to bring a skirt onto his bus, where he changed before school.

When a teacher asked about his attire, he reportedly responded that it's "my choice to wear [the] girls' uniform today."

It's not the first time students have used a loophole in their school's uniform policies to protest bans on shorts.

In 2017, a group of 30 boys in Devon, England arrived to school wearing skirts they'd borrowed from their girlfriends and sisters as temperatures soared above 85 degrees, The Guardian reported.

And in 2013, a group of boys in Cardiff, Wales secretly stashed skirts into their school and changed in the restroom before writing letters to their administrators with the hope of changing the school's policies by the next summer.