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I know this topic is couple years old but thought i'd reply anyway: I went to Thornton HS in Harvey, IL 1973–74 (before family moved out of area). For freshman, that meant a mandatory 9 weeks of swimming as part of PE class. For the guys, that also meant something else. It meant 9 weeks of NUDE swimming class, 5 days a week. There were various reasons given as to why that was depending on who you spoke to and in spite of the outcries by some - the nude classes went on and were mandatory - refuse and you failed PE - period. I can recall even now the Friday before the start of swimming class the following Monday one of my classmates inquiring about swimming suits (as to whether we had to purchase one or the school would be providing them) and our PE teacher replying “neither, you won't be wearing swim suits, boys do swimming class nude here. No one cares what you look like and if you are shy, get over it". The first week or so there were a lot of hands covering things with guys trying their best to stay covered even while jumping into the pool. After about a week no one was doing that anymore. Everyone got used to what was happening. And quoting the PE teacher “no one cared". There was a couple instances where you question the “thinking" when our regular PE teacher wasn't there and the sub was a female - but even that didn't seem to bother anyone: nude we got and swimming class went on as usual. My understanding is that practice at Thornton stopped in the late-90′s, early 2000′s sometime. Even with the explanations given still never really understood it, but, I did it, just like every other male freshman at the school did for many years before and after me did.