New Plymouth Girls High School’s uniform includes a skirt for junior students and senior students, but has no gender neutral option of pants. It’s quite common to hear students wishing for another option for various different reasons. With this petition we can show the NPGHS Board of Trustees how many people feel this, and have shorts or pants added to the uniform.

Why do we need a uniform change?
Overwhelmingly students feel that the uniform is impractical. In winter it’s far too cold with legs only half being covered. They largely restrict movement and freedom especially the senior uniforms which are modeled similar to a pencil skirt. 86% of surveyed students did not think the uniform was practical especially compared to a pants option. 
For transgender students who are assigned female at birth attending NPGHS wearing a skirt everyday becomes very stressful. The transgender students are probably here under circumstance such as unaccepting parents or not having come out. Having to wear a skirt on top of this adds unhappiness that students really don’t need. 92% of surveyed people believed that a gender neutral option would benefit transgender students. Not only will the gender neutral uniform option help transgender students but it helps fight the idea that all women want to wear skirts anyway. 
Judgement around skirt length is also an issue at NPGHS. Among surveyed students 72% believed there was judgement around skirt length within the school and 60% of people had been judged themselves. Having pants as an option would be a simple fix. It would stop the persecution by staff, and bullying by students that occurs until others can learn to be less judgemental.

Most students surveyed said they would either wear pants or they would alternate dependent on weather and other factors. Including a gender neutral option in the uniform is a good step in making the school more inclusive and positive for students that simply don’t feel comfortable in a skirt.