Period Poverty Ends in the Classroom
Period Poverty: When an individual is unable to access or obtain menstrual products.
School is definitely one of the worst places to realize your period started (or didn’t end like you though it did). Surrounded by peers, tasks and expectations the last thing a student wants to do is beg the teacher for a bathroom break only to arrive at the scene and realize they don’t have any period products. Empty handed and distraught, it is justifiable to assume their math test is the least of their concerns . . . what if instead of having to ask your friends . . . you were positive that period products were readily available and free?
To date, 5 states (California, New York, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Virginia) have passed legislation that requires schools to provide free menstrual products to students. The stigma of menstruation and lack of access to period products are both threats to ending period poverty inside and outside the classroom. 85% of students agree that public schools should provide free period products.
The Louisiana HB 195, passed The House Education Committee unanimously on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022. This bill requires Louisiana public schools to provide free menstrual products in student restrooms or other easily accessible locations and helps us continue the fight to end period poverty with through the power of legislation.
Why does it matter?
Period poverty does not discriminate and negatively impacts students education, specifically students of color and those from lower-income backgrounds. 23% of students have struggled to afford period products. These students are not one of many to be left unacknowledged, they are our future and they deserve our voice and fight for their health.
Free period products in public schools will yield positive results compared to the negative results currently accumulating due to a lack of access to period products. 1/4 students missed class because lack of access to period products. Free period products means more class time, quality education and a positive learning environment. A pilot program in New York City found that attendance increased by 2.4% among girls at a city high school after tampons and pads were made readily available in its restrooms.
“When we normalize the topic of periods and being able to speak about it freely with our peers and within our community, we’ll be able to normalize it so much so that it will become more of a priority in our communities and our legislative bodies and for eradicating it as a whole.”
Although free period products has been proven to help the education environment, this is about more than education - it is about the menstruator, and their right to access period products, a necessity. Follow Power Pump Girls, Inc. @powerpumpgirlsinc to keep up-to-date on this bill’s journey through legislature! Remember, everyday is a good day to end period poverty, donate to the secured. initiative here. #periodequity
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/02/1056830306/free-tampons-public-schools
https://period.org/uploads/State-of-the-Period-2021.pdf
https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/hilary-duff-quotes-on-period-poverty-47908498