These girls are ‘banned’ from fixing tights in front of male teachers

For real?

A school principal has apparently told young female pupils that they are "banned" from pulling up or adjusting their tights in front of male teachers. According to Mumsnet user 'catnoir,' her 14-year-old daughter was told during her school assembly that she and her fellow female students were prohibited from pulling up their tights in front of the school's male teachers. Catnoir said the principal told the girls that doing this was "inappropriate." On the parenting forum, she wrote:

"(Dear daughter) had her first assembly of the year this morning, and head mistress/principle has a list of new rules, one including female students are banned from pulling up/adjusting their 60 denier tights in front of male teachers as she feels this is inappropriate and it must be done in private in bathrooms. Surely this is crazy?"

Now, as a woman who wears tights on the regular, I can confirm that needing to pull them up every now and again is a very real thing that happens. Not pulling up your tights can cause discomfort, chafing, and general irritation. I don't even think twice about doing it. To me, young girls being told that they are banned from doing this in front of male teachers is, as Catnoir suggests, "crazy." No girl is going to yank up her skirt to pull up her tights, purposefully flashing a poor unsuspecting teacher in the process. If anything, us women have invented a plethora of ways to adjust ourselves discreetly. This tends to include tight-pulling-up while in school. Some Mumsnet users agreed with Catnoir. They questioned whether the students were prohibited from pulling up their tights in front of female teachers too. One woman asked whether the head mistress would prefer if the girls' tights fell down. However, some others didn't bother questioning the school's new rule and said that "one should always adjust (one's) tights in private." According to that user, it's wrong to pull them up in front of anybody. How very dare we.