Irish Times wrote: For many school principals who watched a social media storm envelop Carlow Presentation College over its school uniform policy, there is a trepidation that it could just as easily have been them. “There is a constant, low-level worry that something will get distorted and blows up online; WhatsApp groups are the worst,” says one school principal, dealing with a similar uniform-related controversy at the school. “Someone gets the wrong end of the stick and it spreads like wildfire.” Another principal who has also been in the eye of a recent controversy online agrees. “It’s such a dangerous weapon. Individuals get named or attacked before any facts are established. But you can’t get into a row on social media . . . so, you keep your head down and hope it blows over.” Schools are increasingly in social media’s crosshairs in rows over uniforms, discipline or treatment of pupils. Once, concerns would have been raised directly. Now, allegations spread before answers catch up. In the stampede towards instant judgment, say principals, truth, context or nuance often gets elbowed aside. In the case of Carlow Presentation College, it all started innocently. Due to Covid-19 regulations – which limit access to changing rooms – students there are allowed to come to school wearing their training gear on the days that they have PE. Staff at the school had, however, grown concerned at the lapses in uniform policy, which stipulates that a tracksuit only should be worn for PE. “What was being noticed by staff, myself and others, over the last month and a half or so is that on PE day when the students were coming in, particularly the girls, the uniform regulations weren’t being followed and it was becoming more of a fashion show more than anything else,” school principal Ray Murray told RTÉ. Together with colleagues, Murray decided to issue a reminder to classes individually last Friday. Rumours – now known to be inaccurate – began to swirl among some students later that the decision had been taken due to discomfort among male members of staff. Some were unhappy that girls, not boys, had been singled out. Murray said he checked with the relevant teachers to ensure nothing inappropriate was said. He said he was assured on multiple occasions that this was the case. “We have female deans of discipline who are mothers themselves who are talking to girls and I know there was nothing inappropriate, wrong, or uncomfortable that was said to them,” he said. What happened next, he says, bemused the school at first. Traffic on social media about the school began on Friday night, attracting more and more attention. Later that night, an anonymous online petition was established to highlight “sexism against female students in school by the staff and students”. All of this was based on unsubstantiated, and, as it turns out, inaccurate reports. Soon, more than 1,000 had signed. When the mother of a student emailed the principal on Saturday, upset over what was alleged to have been said, the dean of discipline for the class responded to the mother via the principal. “The mother rang me half an hour later to say, ‘I’m sorry for jumping the gun. I was going on what other people had told me’,” Murray said. But the initial claims had gained even more online momentum, with 3,500 signates and a plethora of inaccurate allegations. When some mainstream media began to run with the story on Tuesday, repeating the claim - again, one that was wrong - that the leggings were being banned because they distracted male teachers, the audience grew. Many media outlets did not wait for the school to respond before reporting the allegations. By now, in the full glare of national media, the school issued a short statement on Tuesday night. It stated that there has been no change in the school uniform policy – but it did little to counter the narrative. With news dominating newspaper front pages and radio shows, Murray took to the national airwaves on Wednesday morning to set the record straight on what happened from the school’s point of view. In the meantime, the original petition has reached almost 10,000 signatures, with no let-up in the original allegations. Faced with the controversy, the Department of Education has asked for a report. For principals watching on, Carlow is a parable for our times. Four girls’ schools in Dublin alone are dealing with smaller-scale, but similar unfounded controversies, says one principal. “The rage will die down and the story will move on, but it’s much harder for the principals and teachers who have worked so, so hard in the best interests of students,” says one principal. “It’s risky responding publicly,” says another, “We don’t have PR advisers . . . If you’re defensive, you can be made to look foolish. If you get into a row, it looks bad. You can’t win a lot of the time.”
lazygal wrote: » Why should we take the comments of the principal more seriously than the girls who were singled out by teachers?
lazygal wrote: » The girls were separated and accused on radio by the principal of engaging in behaviour like a fashion show. I wasn't impressed by how he sought to minimise the legitimate concerns and didn't explain why the girls were spoken to alone. It seems we're not past the era of thinking the word of a man in power carries more weight than children in Ireland. I question the priorities of a school that's so obsessed with what is worn in the middle of a pandemic that they need to waste their time on this in the first place.
lazygal wrote: » I'm very glad my children's school doesn't have dress codes and if my daughter was treated like the girls in the school in Carlow I'd let her wear whatever she liked for the rest of the year. Dress codes are not important but especially not during a pandemic and especially not important enough to hold assemblies about.
jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: » In your opinion. A dress code can be very important for the disadvantaged who may not have a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes for each school day. Not to mention the pressure students might feel to keep up with their peers. That's why schools have dress codes.
jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: » As regards the cost. There are also uniform grants for those in disadvantaged areas. Uniforms could definitely be cheaper but they'd be cheaper than a variety of the latest gear to keep up with your better-off friends.
Ní Dhubhda is hoping to avoid replacing her daughter’s school uniform this year. “Everything is crested, and has to be ordered from a specialist uniform supplier. If I did have to replace it, the skirt would be €50; her jumper is €35; plus €8 for each shirt. Jackets are around €65; tracksuit bottoms are €50; sports tops are €25.”
lazygal wrote: » No one has to put up with a nonsensical policy in a school the state is paying for. Uniform policies don't make any sense. They make zero difference to teaching or learning. If the only option in an area is a school with rules that don't make sense it is entirely appropriate to challenge and or ignore them. And students shouldn't be singled out and forced to attend assemblies in a pandemic if stupid rules are being ignored. What a way to spread covid.
Bannasidhe wrote: » Now, generally I am in favour of uniforms as I think they can be a great leveller but many schools have ridiculous uniform policies. My Grand-daughter has to wear an ankle length skirt - why?
smacl wrote: » Maybe if they were cheap, practical, durable and didn't push gender stereo types. Being forced into any kind of skirt proved to an anathema to daughter who cycles as her main form of transport.
lazygal wrote: » Schools have dress codes because of tradition and a desire to impose control. There's no evidence whatsoever that uniforms eliminate the issues that you claim.
Treppen wrote: » I often ask my classes which they'd prefer. Hands down it's uniform all the way.
Mark Hamill wrote: » Nobody likes wearing them.
robindch wrote: » My own daughter is fine with uniforms and I gather the majority of her friends are too. She did two years in preschool wearing one, eight years in an Educate Together school without and is now back in a secondary school which requires them. I think this gives her enough experience of wearing them and not wearing them to have an opinion worth listening to. We've discussed the topic a fair amount and I've left her make her own mind up about it rather than telling her that she should be shocked at it, or not, as the case may be. The main thing she likes about it is that it means she doesn't need to worry about what to wear to school - there's one uniform, a few copies of it, and that's that. No early morning angst about what to wear, no panic, no fashion-parading, clothes are virtually indestructible, and none of the, for example, "Oh god, should I be wearing my (fancy brand) trainers to school as it's all I have and I know that X is jealous or makes Y angry" nonsense which plagued the latter years in primary. Once back home, she exits her uniform almost immediately and returns once again, to life as a faddy, fashion-obsessed, normal teenage girl. She views her uniform in the same way that she views researchers wearing lab coats, police wearing their uniforms etc - a necessary, but forgivable, evil for one specific use in one specific context. It's also fun to discuss why her wearing her uniform is sufficiently structurally different from various religious sects requiring women to wear religious outfits that the one is acceptable while the other one isn't - quite a fine distinction, it has to be said, depending upon how one turns it.
robindch wrote: » Once back home, she exits her uniform almost immediately
robindch wrote: » and returns once again, to life as a faddy, fashion-obsessed, normal teenage girl. She views her uniform in the same way that she views researchers wearing lab coats, police wearing their uniforms etc - a necessary, but forgivable, evil for one specific use in one specific context.
Mark Hamill wrote: » Amazing how such pressure can only ever apply to students with what clothes they wear, and not their coats or school bags or bikes (if they have one) or cars (that they are dropped to school in) or even the condition of their schools books (eg new vs second hand). And amazing that such pressure only seems to occur whilst on schools grounds and disappears the second they leave school and no-one gives a hoot what they wear. Heaven forbid schools try and teach kids how to deal with such pressure.
Mark Hamill wrote: » That she immediately dumps the uniform at her first available opportunity kind of supports my point that they are not really liked. .
robindch wrote: » My own daughter is fine with uniforms and I gather the majority of her friends are too. She did two years in preschool wearing one, eight years in an Educate Together school without and is now back in a secondary school which requires them. I think this gives her enough experience of wearing them and not wearing them to have an opinion worth listening to.
Bannasidhe wrote: » I loved my school uniform. It was designed in the late 1920s and they never saw the need to change it. Beret, unvented blazer, gaberdine - it was wonderfully jolly hockey sticks and perfect for a school that had a certain St Trinian's outlook on life. It was also very practical.
