Boys Skirt The Rules -- `No Dress' Code Sparks Protest By Students

The next social revolution may well be led by a boy in a dress.

And the seeds of that movement may have been sown yesterday at Washington Middle School, where more than 100 middle- and high-school students gathered to show their support for two male students who were forced to change clothes when they came to school dressed in skirts two weeks ago.

Yesterday's protest, organized by a group called Empowered Youth Educating Society, wasn't about fashion but personal rights, the students said.

They oppose school rules that, for example, don't allow males to wear clothing more frequently associated with females.

"Why not?" asked David O'Neil, 12, who, along with 13-year-old Andrew Haynes, was forced to change his clothing and don pants that day.

Both boys said they wore the skirts just because they liked them, not to defy rules.

Washington Principal Bruce Hunter said administrators made the boys change clothes because they feared the skirts would disrupt the learning environment.

O'Neil and Haynes said none of their peers seemed to mind.

But yesterday, a small group of Washington students who opposed the demonstration briefly clustered outside the school entrance and shouted "Go home!" before they were escorted back into the building.

The rest of the demonstration was a relatively peaceful, hourlong show of pubescent flower power.

The students, most dressed neo-hippie style, came from as far away as Garfield, Ballard and Roosevelt high schools, NOVA Alternative School and the private Northwest School, to chant, hold hands and challenge authority.

Echoing the protest chants of the late 1960s, the students shouted:

"Whadda we want?"

"Skirts!"

"Why do we want 'em?"

"Becuz'!"

Or: "There ain't enough pants in the whole wide world to take the people's power!"

Washington's student-body president, Sonya Bell, wondered why so many people were moved by the issue of boys wearing skirts.

Girls at her school can't wear mini-skirts, she said, but nobody's marching the streets over that.

"I don't know what they're trying to prove," Bell said.

The whole matter represents a good civics lesson for the students, said Washington's PTSA co-president, Brita Butler-Wall.

"Some of us are encouraging the school to see this as an opportunity to teach them how peaceful demonstrations can be used to get across points of view."

There has been talk at the school recently of doing away with the dress code altogether and having the students wear uniforms, as several Seattle schools have done.

Students who oppose such a move must learn how to organize themselves and articulate their grievances, Butler-Wall said.