Pashutah yid, he was not “tough” and I am not contradicting myself, HE was consistent and he played fair not dirty. WE all knew that there would be fire drills. And we all knew that if you were caught with a short skirt you would be sent home to change. You weren’t suspended, you weren’t berated you were sent home to change. Now home could have been 3 blocks away or most likely Boro Park and even Canarsie since Central was in Flatbush where Shulamis is today. And believe me it was no fun going home and coming back when it was cold, rainy or snowy outside.
And another thing, we were also dealing with outside influences because we were in the hippy, mod, make peace and love not war, LSD, pot, Vietnam, SSSJ, JDL, Rav Meir Kahana z”tl generation. We were in the mini and maxi skirt generation. And btw the new Jewish sensation MBD, who did not stand still when he sung his songs, if you remember how he started out. But interestingly enough WE didn’t have an issue so much with necklines and sleeve lengths. It was mostly the knee length. So I don’t see where you find me contradicting myself. Never did my principal ask a woman teacher to check under a sweater, or measure a skirt with a ruler. We all knew how and where we would be caught, we all knew the rules and we all knew that he didn’t want to deal with our parents but expected us to act like adults.
We also all understood the inyan of negiyah and had open discussions with our Rebbeim in class if any of the girls were sitting on the fence about it. As kids the question came up about gloves, and if one is wearing gloves is it still considered negiah. At that point the Rebbe closed his sefer and said that it is important that we have a frank discussion so that everyone understands the rules clearly and concisely and the reasons behind it.
WE also had pre-kallah classes in our senior year. Just enough to know that we would need to go to Kallah class when we got engaged. We came out of High School knowledgeable and prepared for the outside world.