An Ohio judge who wears dresses has rendered a verdict on the airy staircase with glass steps at the new County courthouse: she plans to take the elevators.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch says the stairs at the building that opened in Columbus have the potential to draw peeping from below. She tells The Columbus Dispatch people who wear dresses, skirts and kilts should know about the risk.

County Director of Public Facilities Management Jim Goodenow says there have been discussions about whether anything should be done about the situation. The newspaper reports that officials don't want to alter the building's artistic integrity. So for now, security guards have been instructed to watch for people craning their necks up at the stairway.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, http:// www.dispatch.com

I'm almost willing to bet that most men (with the exception of the ones who wear kilts) probably never even thought about this type of situation. It would take a woman judge to bring something like this up for discussion.

There have been several times when my modesty has been compromised for some architect's "artistic integrity." When I had Catholic schooling, all the girl students had to wear these plaid, pleated skirts as part of our uniform. With boys being boys, there would be several attempts to try and sneak a peek under our sometimes billowing attire.

There was one trick that we quickly learned about. It seems whenever a girl would go to the water fountain to get a sip, certain boys would attach small mirrors with tape to the tip of their shoe. When we would bend over, their foot would quietly slide below us. However, one of the Sisters promptly put a stop to that.

There was also the issue of the open staircase there and how, if strategically placed below, you could see more than Paris or France. It soon became strategically appropriate for us to be allowed to wear shorts under our already long skirts (which had to fall right below the knee or you earned yourself a demerit).

On especially windy days, it was all a girl could do to keep her skirt from accidentally twirling up! So, having a pair of shorts on underneath was definitely a blessing in itself. When leaving those schoolgirl days behind and opting for tighter, shorter skirts, this still presented yet another challenge.

If you haven't figured it out by now, it's actually somewhat difficult to walk with your knees together, in heels, all the time, and most staircases with an open railing still produce a dilemma. Often I will just take the elevator, but sometimes that's not an option.

Now, with every open staircase, when I'm having one of my girly-girl days and don't want to wear pants, I automatically scope out the area first, and then try to walk as close to the wall as I possibly can (with my knees together, of course)!

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