Letter: Uniform rebels

I AGREE unconditionally with a woman's right to wear what she wants and that men are responsible for their own thoughts and actions but the students at this school (where the headteacher said short skirts were a "distraction", your report, 6 September) are not women; they are schoolgirls who need guidance and protection.

Why does this fall to the headteacher who, presumably in some sort of despair, called this assembly? What are the parents thinking of?

We all know that the minute our offspring are out of the house in the morning, ties are customised, skirts are rolled up and shirts are pulled out or tucked in according to the season. We depend on the teachers to act in loco parentis and sort them out.

Even with the imposed tolerance of a mother of five I am astonished by what I see in the streets of Oban (not the most hip town in the country) when school comes out. At best it looks like the cast of the old version of a St Trinian's movie. At worst? I dare not say for fear of reprisals from indignant parents.

Why, in an age of paedophiliac hysteria, where children are confined to bedrooms furnished with varieties of electronic equipment to keep them occupied, so avoiding sexual assaults on the streets, do we, paradoxically, allow our girl children to attend school dressed outrageously (a word I don't use often, but trust me - it's appropriate)?

The head teacher in this case told it how it is. He's dealing with adolescents in their hundreds. I had problems dealing with five! His language was incautious but the principle is right.

The women who work in my bank and M&S and my favourite coffee shop have a uniform, for goodness' sake. Parents should require that the school trains for life and that, in certain places, certain dress is not acceptable.

By the way, the boys I've seen appear to dress like priests - perhaps it's a reaction.

Jennifer Baker

Laggan

Isle of Lismore, Argyll