After Shorts Ban, British Schoolboys Don Skirts

Despite the hottest June temperatures in more than 40 years, the head teacher at Isca Academy in Devon, England, told boys shorts were not an acceptable part of the school uniform—but she didn't ban skirts. To keep cool and protest the ban, dozens of boys at the secondary school turned up Thursday in skirts that had been borrowed from friends or siblings, CNN reports. One teen described the feeling as a "nice breeze" amid the sweltering temperatures. The mother of a 14-year-old boy tells Devon Live that head teacher Aimee Mitchell sarcastically told boys protesting the shorts ban that they could wear skirts if they liked—but "children tend to take you literally."

"Children also don’t like injustice," another mother says. "The boys see the female teachers in sandals and nice cool skirts and tops while they are wearing long trousers and shoes and the older boys have to wear blazers." Boys who wore the school's regulation tartan skirts did not get into trouble—apart from one who wore his too short. With the protest now spreading to other schools with shorts bans, Mitchell has signalled that she is ready to reconsider. "Shorts are not currently part of our uniform for boys," she said Thursday, per the Guardian. "However, with hotter weather becoming more normal, I would be happy to consider a change for the future." (This London school is considering gender-neutral uniforms.)