Tuesday was unseasonably warm, but the students still were still dressed in their full uniforms.  The girls have to wear a vest over their blouses, and the boys have a sweater vest as part of their ensemble.  A couple of lawless renegades came to school in their summer uniforms, but most everyone kept to the standard apparel.  The boys did doff their jackets at least.  It dawned on me that there must be a regulation in place about when they can change to summer mode.  I asked a teacher, who confirmed my suspicions.  My first idea was that it must be regulated by the date, regardless of the weather, like maybe they can’t change until June first or something.  It isn’t quite that bad it turns out, but the teacher went on to say there is a person at the school is endowed with the authority to decide when it is warm enough to make the change.  Uniform Guy makes an official announcement and then the students can wear summer attire from that time until, I assume, the same person makes a converse announcement in the fall.  However, the person whose job it is to do that is out sick right now, so there is no one here to make a decision about uniforms.  So on Tuesday 700 students were suffering because one person wasn’t here to make it official.  One wonders why, in the absence of the Uniform Guy, they couldn’t delegate the authority to someone else, or just make a phone call even.  But, I guess it just isn’t done that way.  Anyway, I guess the point is moot, because the weather has turned cooler again, so the sweaters are tolerable for the time being.  One hopes Uniform Guy returns before July.

Here is an article from the BBC about school uniform regulations in various countries.