After being told they can't wear shorts in the summer, these boys showed up to school in skirts

At Isca Academy in Exeter, England, the boys have had it. It's hot. Their uniforms, with their long pants, are stuffy. They want relief but they can't wear shorts. What's a boy to do?

For these students, the answer was obvious: Wear skirts. On Thursday, dozens of boys at Isca Academy arrived with skirts over their shorts to make a point about the inherent double standard in their own dress code.

This protest comes just days after the mother of one of the boys openly complained to the school about how it was simply too hot to require the boys to wear long pants to school.

"I have sent him to school as normal because he doesn't want to be put in the isolation room," the mother told the local news outlet Devon Live. "I just want something done about it because as far as I am aware all the other high schools have adapted their policy for the hot weather but Isca are refusing to budge."

On Wednesday, just a few arrived in skirts — on Thursday, dozens.

BBC

In a Facebook Live video capturing the event, girls were seen handing over their extra skirts for the boys to borrow.

Facebook

In a statement to Mic, a representative from the school reported that "none of the boys have been reprimanded for wearing skirts, no one put in isolation or given a detention."

Before Thursday, the head teacher, Aimee Mitchell, noted that shorts are still not allowed for the boys, and no change would take effect until she had consulted with the parents.

"Shorts are not currently part of our uniform for boys and I would not want to make any changes without consulting both students and their families," Mitchell told Devon Live. "However, with hotter weather becoming more normal, I would be happy to consider a change for the future."

But after Thursday's demonstration, the school notified everyone that shorts would be incorporated into the uniform next year.

"As summers are becoming hotter, shorts will be introduced as part of our school uniform next year having first consulted with students and parents," a blog post read. "We feel that introducing a change in uniform part way through this year would put undue pressure on some of our families."

According to many parents on the record, though, they're the ones who are championing this sort of action.

"Children also don't like injustice," one parent told Devon Live. "The boys see the women teachers in sandals and nice cool skirts and tops while they are wearing long trousers and shoes and the older boys have to wear blazers. They just think it's unfair that they can't wear shorts in this heat."

Mere hours after this event took place, Twitter was apparently on the boys' side on this one.

These boys wearing skirts to make a statement about the dress code comes just a few days after a grown man did the same thing at his workplace. On Monday, after Joey Barge, who also lives in England, got sent home from work for wearing shorts, he came right back wearing a dress. His tweets about it have gone viral too.

Looks like a little demonstration can still really change things, even in 2017.

June 23, 2017, 8:21 a.m.: This post has been updated.