Bid to bar winter school skirts gets chilly reception

Eunice Lam

The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application by an alumna challenging the Church of Christ in China Kei Chi Secondary School for "disregarding students' health" by requiring them to wear skirts during winter.

Judge Russell Coleman said applicant Yuen Man-hei graduated from the school six years ago and so has no right to file the application for a judicial review.

He also said the school's student handbook clearly states students can wear pants when the observatory issues a cold weather warning.

Yuen was a student at the aided school in Kwun Tong between September 2012 and August 2018.

She filed the application in June to "on behalf of all girl students in Hong Kong."

Yuen said most schools require female students to wear dresses or skirts in bitter weather and have their calves exposed, which is "unreasonable, goes against nature and involves an element of sex discrimination."

She added: "It is hoped that the court will step in and prohibit all schools in Hong Kong from continuing with this policy, or give explicit instructions to all schools that female students are allowed or asked to wear thick tights or long trousers in cold weather."

But Coleman dismissed her application yesterday, citing a lack of standing and the significant delay as Yuen filed an application six years after her graduation and had not attended a secondary school since.

"I think it would have been tolerably clear that the application was bound to be dismissed by reason simply of her lack of standing and the delay," he said in the judgment.

Coleman also cited the school's response that, when Yuen was still a student at the school, its uniform rules already allowed female students to wear gray pants when the cold weather warning was in force.

After Yuen graduated, its uniform rules were amended to permit female students to wear dark gray stockings when the cold weather warning is in force.

The school also said Yuen had acknowledged that she knew of one change to the uniform rules before making the judicial review application.

The Education Bureau said schools have the discretion whether to have uniforms and devise the corresponding school rules as it sees fit, taking into account school's particular circumstances. The bureau had also not received any complaint from Yuen about the uniform rules at Kei Chi.

"It is apparent from the materials provided to me that the alleged requirement is actually also not a general requirement or one adopted by the majority of girls' schools and co-educational schools in Hong Kong," Coleman said.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com