Low-riding pupils could be waisting their time

By PAULA OLIVER

Schools welcoming students back to class this week are bracing themselves for the latest adaptation of the humble school uniform - girls baring their midriffs above vastly oversized skirts.

Some schoolgirls are buyingskirts up to three sizes too big so that they sit below the waistline and expose the midriff.

One Wellington uniform supplier has been so troubled by the "Britney Spears" fashion statement unfolding before her eyes that she telephoned a nearby school to raise the alarm.

Girls who arrive at Auckland schools this week sporting low-riding skirts and an exposed midriff can expect a swift response.

"We would simply tell them it was unacceptable," Waitakere College's Brett Bradley said when told of the trend.

Hamilton's Fraser High school principal Martin Elliot said the girls would be sent home.

"I made a statement to an assembly that boys with low-riding shorts would be sent home or I'd get a piece of rope to tie their pants up," Mr Elliot said.

"I haven't seen it happen with girls yet. They're welcome to do that in their own time, but when they're with us they will wear what they are supposed to wear."

Principals and teachers across the country are well prepared for the possible influx of midriffs.

Last year many grappled with boys who turned up wearing shorts so large that they hung below the waistline and exposed brightly coloured boxer shorts.

One Whangarei schoolboy's low-riding shorts slipped off when his principal lifted his shirt to check where his shorts were.

Some schools imposed immediate detentions on boys with low-riders, while others reached for the uniform rule-book and added the word "waistline".

A bare midriff is just the latest in a long line of student initiatives in the area of uniform.

In the 1960s some students cut the dome out of the centre of their school caps and creased the hat so the school emblem was more pronounced. Others put notches in their belts each time they received the cane.

In the mid-1980s Takapuna Grammar students were known to cut holes through the cuffs of their blue sweaters to poke their thumbs through.

Later in the 1980s students wearing Nomad shoes attached as many tags to the laces as possible, while many girls wore men's socks to school.

In recent years some schools have adapted to students' desires. Two Northland schools last year allowed beanies into their uniform standard.

A South Island school that was experiencing problems with girls not tucking shirts into kilts responded by designing a tailored shirt that hung neatly outside the kilt.