Ulpanit Jeshurun students
National Religious school backs down over skirt length
Following Ynet's publication last week that Ulpanit Jeshurun in Petah Tikva was imposing a more conservative dress code just before the new school year and the parents' subsequent anger, the school has reversed its decision.
After Ynet reported on the recent change in dress code at Petah Tikva's Ulpanit Jeshurun that extended the female pupils' required skirt length to the floor and the parents' anger at such a change, the administration sent a new message to the parents on Thursday night rescinding the planned modification.
Ulpanit Jeshurun is an all-girls school with 1,000 pupils from seventh to twelfth grade. It is a National Religious establishment. Its principal, Rabbi Yaniv Cohen, sent a letter to the parents last week in which he announced that the girls' skirts needed to reach the floor from now on. Previously, the requirement had been that skirts be knee-length.
Ulpanit Jeshurun students with now-acceptable skirt lengths
The letter enraged many of the students' parents. They complained that the new requirement was a sign of "ultra-Orthodoxizing" the school. They further protested that the change was announced just weeks before the beginning of the school year, when it would be nigh impossible to enroll their girls in a different school if they so wished.
Following the publication of this letter and the ire it inspired, a conversation began between the administration and the PTA. On Thursday, the principal sent a new letter to parents that announced that during the upcoming school year, the school would be implementing school uniforms. He wrote that the skirt length would be to the knees, adding "A team of the institution's management, the PTA, the pupils and fashion consultants will meet in the coming months about the style and selection of skirts."
His letter did clarify further that skirts must fully cover the knees and that pupils who failed to come appropriately dressed would not be able to continue learning at Ulpanit Jeshurun.
