For the past few days, numerous publications on social networks have claimed that teachers and students with an immigrant background have banned short dresses and skirts in a high school in Bavaria, in the south-east of Germany.
“Well, here we are! Now, Western societies must stoop to meet the moral demands of stuck immigrants unable to desexualize their view of girls’ bodies! This is the kind of comments that are attached to this information.
The sources cited are mainly two far-right sites, Fdesouche and Invahis.com, which themselves take up an article from a German site Merkur.de.
FAKE OFF
The article from the German site in question from May 15 evokes a conflict situation in the high school-college of the town of Ebersberg, located a few kilometers from Munich. The school and the students are said to be at odds over the dress code after some teachers complained to the director, Markus Schmidl, about the clothing of the students. With “more summery” temperatures, students would wear looser clothing. The article also mentions too short skirts, torn pants and “too free” bellies.
The incident had already been reported by the Suddeutsche Zeitung May 6. The newspaper already spoke of teachers who had “emphasized that bare stomachs and shoulders were ‘taboo'”. This position would have created a conflict between the teaching team, some of the students who want the rules to be applied and those who regret that the students are “sexualized by their clothes”. At no time in this article is the question of teachers or students with an immigrant background addressed. The school director refutes the idea of a dress code and speaks only of the internal regulations in force since 2007 which stipulate that students must wear “appropriate and non-offensive clothing”.
People with an immigrant background are just one example
The question of professors and students with an immigrant background is well addressed in Merkur’s paper, but not in the sense given to it on social networks. In reaction to the demands of the pupils, Markus Schmidl retorts that his school represents a “society open to the world”. To support his point, he adds that his school welcomes people of immigrant origin, whether teachers or foreign students, and that he wants to take all cultures into account. These remarks support those he made at the Suddeutsche Zeitung saying that he had to take into account all sensitivities, including that of the teachers, hence the existence of internal regulations.
Contacted by 20 minutesMarkus Schmidl confirms his statements and refers us to an interview he gave to the Suddeutsche Zeitung and posted on May 13: “There is no old or new dress code. There is no code at all. It was a communication misunderstanding. “According to the director, the teachers have simply noted a relaxation in the clothing of the students since the start of the health crisis and the confinement. He also said that the school has a mission of instruction and education: “After all, you can’t go to the office later in beach clothes,” he added.
The situation has since calmed down since the students note “a positive development and an openness to dialogue”. “We feel that the school wants to work with the students,” said the student spokesperson at the Suddeutsche Zeitung.