It’s so hot in England, schoolboys are wearing skirts

Few houses in England have air conditioning, so I suspect that is true for schools.
When I was a child in the U.S., schools did not have air conditioning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/06/22/its-so-hot-in-england-schoolboys-are-wearing-skirts/?utm_term=.447533bdba41

By Lindsey Bever June 22

Amid an intense heat wave, dozens of British schoolboys went to class wearing girls' uniform skirts when the head teacher would not relax a dress code banning the more suitable option: shorts.

The teenage boys at Isca Academy in Exeter argued it was too hot for pants as temperatures approached 90 degrees Wednesday. Dozens of boys, who borrowed uniform skirts from female friends and sisters, planned to go to class Thursday sporting a new look in protest of the school's 'no shorts' policy, according to the English news site, Devonlive.com, though, the temperatures Thursday had dropped into the upper 60s, according to the Associated Press.

“We're not allowed to wear shorts, and I'm not sitting in trousers all day — it's a bit hot,” one of the boys told BBC News.

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“My son wanted to wear shorts but was told he would be put in the isolation room for the rest of the week,” a mother, who was not named, told Devonlive.com about her 14-year-old son. “The head teacher told them 'Well you can wear a skirt if you like' but I think she was being sarcastic. However, children tend to take you literally, and so five boys turned up in skirts today — and because she told them it was okay there was nothing she could do as long as they are school skirts.

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The mother also told Devonlive.com the boys are fighting “injustice.”

“Children also don't like injustice,” she told the news site. “The boys see the women teachers in sandals and nice cool skirts and tops while they are wearing long trousers and shoes and the older boys have to wear blazers. They just think it's unfair that they can't wear shorts in this heat.

“They are doing this to cool down — but also to protest because they don't feel they have been listened to.”

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http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23341698

10 ways the UK is ill-prepared for a heatwave
By Vanessa Barford BBC News Magazine
18 July 2013
From the Magazine

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The UK is a country of radiators, not air conditioning. A Mintel report in 2008 found that just 0.5% of houses and flats in the UK had any kind of air con.

That contrasts with the US, where nearly 100 million homes have it. It has even been suggested that air con accounts for as much as 15% of total American energy consumption.

Air con is more common in the workplace in the UK, which might avoid some problems. A Nasa study, cited by Mintel, suggested that productivity falls by 3.6% for every degree over 22C [71.6F].

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