Outaouais boys protest high school dress code in skirts

Boys at a Gatineau, Que., high school are protesting dress codes they consider sexist, a move inspired by demonstrations by students across Quebec.

Last Wednesday, having watched the movement take shape in Montreal, 16-year-old Zachary Paulin shared his plans with a group of about 30 friends to wear a skirt to school on Friday.

One hundred of his fellow classmates ended up arriving at Collge Nouvelles Frontires in skirts.

"I knew that it was going to be a big movement, but not that big of a movement," he said.

"I was pleasantly surprised."

Boys at a number of Quebec high schools arewearing skirts to school this monthto protest what they say is a double standard in school dress codes.

Last week, boys at a number of Montreal-area schools wore skirts to school, sayingpoliciesrequiring skirts to be a maximum of10 centimetresabove the knee was sexist and unfair.

• Boys in several Quebec high schools wear skirts to protest dress code

There are no equivalent restrictions on clothing generally worn by boys, such as shorts.

A double standard

Paulinsaidthe one-day protest was aimed at a number of causes, from toxic masculinity to the sexualization of women.

He said he hoped to speak with the school's principal about how to make the school more inclusive and accepting.

About the experience of wearing a skirt, he found it liberating on the one hand, while restrictive on the other.

"You can't really bendand you've got to be cautious with your movements," he said.

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Zachary Paulin, 16, says he organized an event on Friday that saw more than 100 male students wearing skirts to school at Gatineau's College Nouvelle Frontieres in an effort to fight gender discrimination.

At Collge Saint-Alexandre in Gatineau, a 108-year-old private secondary school where boys and girls wear uniforms, director generalMario Vachonsaid that administrators had watched the debate unfold on social media.

A few boys wore skirts to the school Tuesday, but Vachon said it did not appear that the movement was widely supported.

Teachers used itas an opportunity to raise the subjects of toxic masculinity, LGBTQ rights and equality in classroom discussions, he said.