In a huge victory for what is pretty much a common sense issue, a six-year-old girl has been granted the privilege of being able to wear pants to her Melbourne Catholic school, after her mum started an online petition to free her from the tyranny of skirts.
Asha Cariss, who’s in Grade 1, found that the tunic the girls have to wear in winter was impeding her sporting abilities, and, very understandably, asked why she couldn’t just wear pants like her dude friends.
The school initially said no, so her industrious mum fired up a petition – which ended up getting 10,000 signatures in 3 days.
Simone Cariss didn’t name the school in the petition, saying she had no problems with the quality of education, she was just real uncomfortable telling her daughter she couldn’t do something just because she’s a girl:
“Dresses disadvantage girls like my daughter who want to play footy, run, climb and ride a bike to school. The boys get to wear pants and shorts which facilitate these activities far better than a dress. I won’t stand for a policy that only encourages and promotes girls to be active on sports days … What about the rest of the time?”
James Merlino, the Victorian education minister, weighed in to say that it’s 2016 and he would expect all students should be able to wear pants if they like.
The decision is an interim one until they make a proper ruling on it but it would be super weird to take it back after this.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Change.org / Simone Cariss.
