Menstruators Are Missing School. We Need to Change That.
My friend got her period right before she had to take a Physics test. She asked her teacher to use the bathroom and then realized that she didn’t have any pads or tampons. She went back to class and sat uncomfortably at her desk, unable to concentrate on her test while she bled through her pants. After the bell rang, she left campus to change her blood-stained pants at home. When her mom called the office to explain her leaving school, the office marked my friend’s absence as a cut instead of excusing it as an emergency.
Another friend of mine told me about a time when she got her period during soccer practice. No one on the team had any pads or tampons, and, of course, the bathrooms were also vacant of period products. With no other choice, she wrapped toilet paper around her underwear as a makeshift pad before she went back to the field to play.
I heard a similar story from yet another menstruator. It was her freshman year of high school and first year on the water polo team when her period came unexpectedly. She could not find period products in the locker room and did not feel comfortable asking her teammates, whom she hardly knew, for a pad or tampon. So she left practice early.
Every time I would hear one of these stories, my heart would ache because it usually resulted in a menstruator being forced to use unsanitary means, missing excessive class time or practice, or leaving school entirely. Although my old high school provided free period products in the health office, the stigma around periods held many menstruators back from utilizing the health office as a resource.
Walking through a building where administrators and staff have their eyes on you while you pick a pad from a basket is an unnecessarily stressful process to take care of our necessary biology. How uncomfortable would you feel if you had to pick up a piece of toilet paper from a separate building every time you wanted to use the bathroom?
Ultimately, our culture perceives periods as an illegitimate biological experience and positions period products as less essential than toilet paper. According to a 2017 study by Thinx, “42% of women have experienced period shaming,” and “71% of women surveyed admit to having hidden a pad or tampon on their way to the bathroom.” The fact that Scotland has been the only country in the world — as of 2020, the year of the pandemic, I might add — that has made period products free for those who need them speaks volumes about the state of the menstrual movement and the immense stigma around periods.
In schools, this stigma translates to insufficient access to menstrual products that affect menstruators’ productivity in schools in a way that non-menstruating students simply do not experience. Additionally, menstruators are more likely to be economically vulnerable. In turn, this inequity creates educational barriers for menstruating students, which is exasperated for those who can not afford these products outside of school.
San Mateo County reported that in the 2019–20 school year, 32.7% of its students were eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Of these low-income students, those who menstruate are disproportionately affected by the high cost of menstrual products. Additionally, their attendance is more likely to suffer from limited access to period products at schools.
Students like myself live and breathe this period stigma every day when we step into a school bathroom without period products. In learning more about period poverty, I grew frustrated that our schools were not addressing such an obvious barrier that has negatively impacted attendance. Empowered by Nadya Okamoto’s Period Power, I decided to take action in my own community.
I have spent the past year working on The Period Project, which aims to address this inequity in San Mateo County. In response to the pandemic, the first half of the project, which will launch in mid-February, will allow students to pick up free period product packs in the same way they pick up free lunches or condoms from schools. Many families are struggling to put food on the table during these times, and purchasing overpriced menstrual products can prove to be another financial strain. These brown-bag packs will hopefully ease the financial burden that many families are experiencing now.
The second half of the project is set to be implemented when schools reopen in Fall 2021. By then, the girls and gender-neutral bathrooms in these two high schools will be stocked with Aunt Flow’s free period product dispensers. Menstruating students will no longer be constrained by the limited access to period products at these schools.
I feel excited and grateful to have the support from Congresswoman Jackie Speier and San Mateo County Supervisor Carole Groom, who will help fund this project. This project aims to increase attendance among menstruating students and then expand county-wide and potentially state-wide. I believe that redistribution of products and destigmatizing menstruation in our institutions’ eyes, particularly schools, are worthy of our investments.
