Tampons and pads are an essential item for girls in school. Almost every girl in middle and high school gets a period. It’s not taboo, it’s not hard to talk about, it’s a fact. That’s why schools should have free tampons and pads in every one of their bathrooms and even some classrooms.
Periods aren’t something that will stop happening in the next few years. It has happened ever since Eve ate that apple. There’s no denying that girls need sanitary products for at least 10 weeks of the 10 months we spend in school each year, so why don’t we have free resources?
Most young women get their first period between the years of 10 to 15. So from the grades of 5th to 10th, (end of elementary to high school sophomore) girls all around the globe will be entering the time for menstrual supplies.
At our school, like many others, we have available products in the nurses’ office. This isn’t a scenario for every school, however. A recent case came out about how a girl came into her school nurse’s office with blood-soaked pants asking for a sanitary pad. When the nurse asked her to bring an extra one tomorrow, she said, “I don’t have any.” The nurse then called her mother and asked to get her an extra pair of pants and a pad; the mother admitted that they couldn’t afford any sanitary products.
People who struggle with money are in every public school out there. Families can’t afford to pay their bills, let alone have a year-round supply of pads and tampons. Young women from low-income families need to have the resources that everyone else gets.
“Embarrassment keeps students from asking staff for menstrual products, so they often have accidents, miss class in search of products, or just leave school,” says Girls Helping Girls Period. Do administrators want more students to miss classes and leave school? There is already a nationwide problem with school absenteeism. If schools hadn’t taught us that periods and feminine hygiene were such a taboo thing to talk about maybe more girls wouldn’t have to leave in the middle of the school day because of things like blood-soaked pants. Maybe we wouldn’t be afraid to speak up.
Mahoro Amani, Miami Arts Charter High School’s Student Council president, got her first period at 9 years old. Now she talks about what it’s like for girls to be in schools during their menstrual period. “It was really concerning to me how many kids have had panic attacks or cried in the bathroom because they don’t have pads and none of their friends have pads on them,” Amani said.
In her school, she is working with other people to get free menstrual products in all of their bathrooms. That’s something that our school’s student council can work towards.
Free access to pads and tampons is something that all schools can do. It’s time for our governing boards to wake up and pay attention to this mess. It shouldn’t all be on us.
