Friday, September 13, 2024
“When I started menstruating there was nothing.”
“I was late, absent, and distracted.”
“These products should be available like toilet paper.”
-Wisconsin Public School students on Period Inequality in our schools
By Blue Campbell
Educational Information Services Intern at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
There is no statewide law or mandate requiring access to period products in schools.
There is no guarantee that students in Wisconsin schools who menstruate can access the hygiene products they need in order to be clean, comfortable, and ready to learn.
In 2023, a bill was introduced to the Senate which would require all Wisconsin public and charter schools to provide menstrual products in all bathrooms. Senate Bill 590, co-sponsored by 32 Democrats, failed to pass in April 2024. Part of the reason it failed was an inability to estimate the financial impact of the bill.
School nurses try to help, but often don't have the funding they need to fully address demand.
Many students’ first stop is to ask their school nurse. Louise Wilson, School Nursing and Health Services Consultant for the DPI, said that school nurses are often the only school staff who consistently provide menstrual products to students.
Since there is no funding specifically allocated to providing menstrual products and many schools do not have a health office budget, school nurses have to find other ways to provide menstrual products to students. Some choose to ask their school’s PTA for funding. Others buy menstrual products with their own money and donate them to the heath office. The limited availability and relatively high cost of menstrual products can place students and nurses on opposing sides. Nurses have reason to monitor their supply, which can make students feel judged or embarrassed when they take the hygiene supplies they need.
School nurses are typically the instructors for Human Growth and Development units, making them a source of critical education as well as physical products. Wilson shared that having menstrual products available in the health office can provide menstruating students with an opportunity to ask questions about using and disposing of menstrual products, managing pain and discomfort, or talking to their families about what they need.
While school nurses are a fantastic resource for students, Wilson also echoed students' sentiments that nobody should have to ask for the hygiene products they need. As Wilson put it, “only having [menstrual products] in the health office is restrictive, invades privacy, and creates barriers to access.”
Period products should be accessible. Period.
When students have to get a menstrual product from the health office, they have two choices: go between classes and arrive late to their next class, or ask a teacher for a pass, missing lesson time and risking embarrassment. Both scenarios force students to choose between their bodily needs and their access to education. Neither allow them to feel comfortable and in control of their personal hygiene.
The most obvious solution is also the most popular: put menstrual products in bathrooms. Stocking free menstrual products in bathrooms allows students to take what they need without feeling embarrassed or pressured to explain their hygiene needs.
When products are stocked in bathrooms, it is important that they are put in all bathrooms. Students with disabilities may use bathrooms that are not typically open to students. Students who menstruate may identify with any gender, and may use women’s, men’s, or gender neutral bathrooms. Stocking every bathroom in a school with menstrual products allows all students to meet their hygiene needs.
It’s not just stocking products, it’s also making sure students can dispose of them properly.
Students shared that school bathrooms do not always have appropriate means to dispose of used menstrual products. Many high school bathrooms provide trash cans in each stall of women’s bathrooms, but not always. When students have to leave a stall to dispose of used menstrual products, they are more likely to try and avoid embarrassment by flushing products down the toilet.
Trash cans in stalls are less common in middle schools, and relatively rare in elementary schools. Younger students are also less likely to know that menstrual products should not be flushed, and more likely to feel embarrassed about carrying a used menstrual product through the bathroom. With proper signage and easy access to appropriate disposal methods, schools can encourage proper hygiene habits and avoid plumbing problems from improper disposal of menstrual products.
It’s an equity issue
It’s not an exaggeration to say that not having menstrual products has negative effects on student education. According to the 2023 State of the Period study commissioned by PERIOD and Thinx, Inc., 25% of teens report missing schoolwork because of a lack of access to products.
Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families are more likely to experience period poverty, the inability to afford or access menstrual products. This is compounded by a lower average age of menarche among the same demographic.
Even in districts where high school students have easy access to menstrual products and proper means of disposal, elementary and middle schoolers often do not.
The bottom line is this: when a student who is Black, Hispanic, or low income has their first period, they are more likely to have not yet taken a human growth and development course, their elementary or middle school is less likely to have access to supplies at school, or access to menstrual products at home. All of these factors are cumulative and contribute to achievement gaps.
When systems and adults fail to address period inequality, some students have stepped up.
At a planning meeting in the fall of 2022, members of Madison East High School’s Girls, Inc club decided that their main focus for the year would be a “period product campaign” to address period poverty and social stigma in their school. “Seeing that it probably wouldn’t be addressed by adults in the near future, we decided to take on the problem,” one East High student and Girls, Inc leader said.
The club’s efforts included writing a grant for $2,500 from the Schenck Atwood Starkweather Yahara Neighborhood Association. Girls, Inc was awarded the grant in both 2022 and 2023, which they used to purchase menstrual products. The club also ran a period product drive, placing donation receptacles at local businesses, which collected over 9,000 menstrual products. Donated and purchased menstrual products were placed in every bathroom in the school. The club plans to continue the project this year.
During the 2023-24 school year, Baraboo High School student Anne Langkamp started the “Period Positivity Project” as part of her senior independent study. Langkamp applied for the Class of 1976 Education Innovation Grant, which was used to purchase and install menstrual product dispensers in every women’s and gender neutral bathroom, as well as the women’s locker room, staff bathroom, and WINGS building. The dispensers were stocked with menstrual products donated by the community.
How can you help?
We know that students need menstrual products at school. We know that students who don’t have access to menstrual products are more likely to miss school. We know that students are taking action. So what can educators do to help?
- Let students go to the bathroom or to the nurse. If there is concern over a student missing significant learning time, address it with them privately.
- Check whether bathrooms in your school have waste baskets in every stall. If not, ask your administration about options for adding waste baskets.
- Partner with local organizations to get menstrual product donations. Appleton Area School District staff partnered with The Monthlies Project to provide menstrual products and extra clothing at every school in the district.
- Collaborate with coworkers and students to fundraise, collect menstrual product donations, and raise awareness about period poverty in your district.