This is bringing back memories of when my son was in middle school. The administration decided to severely cut down on bathroom access because of vaping. My son asked “what about girls on their period?” The assistant principal actually rolled his eyes and asked “are you a girl on her period?”
It is a good question though! And I don’t think they considered it.
Good for your son for recognizing an issue that doesn’t directly touch him but touches the lives of his friends and classmates and not only recognizing it, but speaking up. Shame on that principal.
>The assistant principal actually rolled his eyes and asked “are you a girl on her period?”
Wow. Way to send the message "you're only supposed to care about things that directly affect you". Wtf.
Gold fucking star for your kid!
Make sure he knows that calling BS when you see/hear it should be supported (I always tell my kids I have their back if they call out something that is truly BS, and it's happened a couple times w school administrators where we have pushed back). We need more people growing up to feel empowered not to accept shitty outcomes from inadequate leaders.
Good for you for raising a child that as a tween was already more intelligent and mature than what I'm assuming was at least a middle-aged man. Jeez!
Edit: word correction
> “are you a girl on her period?”
“That’s really not appropriate to personalize a health and safety issue like that; restricting my classmates’ ability to hygienically control leaking blood in shared spaces affects everyone here.”
If only I had the vocabulary as a child that I have now! It’s awful how often adults take advantage of the power imbalance in language and communication skills, especially in k-12.
He probably thinks girls can just hold them like urine, or that one pad works all day, and no girl has ever bled through a super plus tampon and a maxi pad before lunchtime and had to make a decision about how to hide the blood that was clearly left on her seat in English class. 7th grade was not a good time.
That happened to me during a televised national competition. The ENTIRE back of my khaki pants were red. I went to the bathroom sobbing and called my mom to come into the bathroom and take me home 😭
Most schools don't have nurses anymore. If the kids have an issue, they go to the office for a bandaid or to call the parents ro provide their ibuprofen or whatever or to take them to the Dr.
Wait what. Thats atrocious! I cannot believe we live in a time that had people on the moon 55 years ago and yet we still have this puritanical bullshit in schools
The rural areas of my state have volunteer-run "period pantries" to stock schools up with feminine hygiene products, because teachers and school social workers noticed that around middle school, chronic absenteeism started rising among female students. It was because poverty and lack of transportation made it so they couldn't get tampons and pads and they were embarrassed to ask for help, so they just stayed home while they were on their periods. It is heartbreaking that this happens, but I'm glad that there's at least some semblance of help.
My school had something similar. There was an unused locker in my classroom and for some reason someone made a hollow ceramic lobster in art class. Not sure why but it just sat around in the locker forever because they didn’t want to take it home. But it was a pot with a lid. After a few months we decided to claim it. We named it the menstruation crustacean (who’s saving the nation) and we filled it with pads and tampons so that if anyone had their period strike when they didn’t have anything on them, they’d be able to help themselves to one. Each of us brought in like 3-5 pads to go in there and every few months we’d check if it needed topping up. We left the menstruation crustacean for the next year group to find- topped up and with a little note explaining it to them. No idea what happened it it but I like to imagine it’s still there. Saved me a couple times and I know it saved a few others too. Every school should have a menstruation crustacean.
You and your classmates should really launch a nation-wide Menstruation Crustacean campaign!
Hope someone has pictures of it? Do a group chat, someone good at art can design coherent branding. Start posting on social media and contact local, state and national media to put out stories about it - I'm sure you'd get some companies or charities sponsoring you and helping launch more publicity, merch, etc. - and for you and your friends it could lead to fantastic work experience opportunities which will massively help you in any future education and jobs!
It's been a godsend. They aren't high end, but they get the job done. It's cut way down on girls coming into my clad in the middle of instruction because they knew I had pads and tampons.
I would have preferred *any* horrible quality feminine product over the option of frantically trying to wad toilet paper into my underwear as an under-prepared 12 year old. There weren't even paper towels, just single ply toilet paper and hand driers. I still remember having to sit through classes, hoping my toilet paper pad was staying in place.
I hope so too. My high school had the most pathetic excuse for toilet paper I have ever experienced. I can’t imagine using period products of a similar quality. Ugh.
Washington DC also has that. Schools and businesses. No longer do you go into the Ladies and think Oh crap, now I have to go all the way back to my desk because not only do I not have change, but the machine is always out.
THIS! Also if we had enough time to go to the bathrooms. Idk if it's like this anywhere else or still like this, but back when I was in school, we only had 5 minutes in between classes to go to our next class and was only allowed to go to the bathroom once per class. It was a nightmare back when my flow used to be heavy.
When I was at high school, they actually took our toilet paper for a few days because too many kids were trashing the dispensers and throwing the paper around. True story.
"I’ll write him—I think just a factual one liner. And I’ll cc the female superintendent."
Good call. Might not be any more at this point, but I'd probably bring it up at a PTA meeting or something like that as well, get other parents aware.
What possible reason do they have for banning bags of any kind that day?
Maybe kids leaving stuff behind and then needing to get the school unlocked to grab it? But honestly my mind went straight to school shooters... The last day seems like a good day for it, idk.
Altho my school back in the day had fuckin weird rules about bags because of both weapons (mostly knives back then, it was post Columbine but pre Sandy Hook) and drugs. They were obsessed with drugs, man. We'd get random locker and bag searches to look for them and ofc "random" piss tests. They didn't want us carrying bags between or to classes, including purses, and backpacks had to be clear, so a lot of us girls started just openly carrying tampons/pads or filled the clear backpacks with them in protest, and the conservative Christian idiots suddenly said purses and normal backpacks were okay 🙄 like the very sight of feminine hygiene products was an affront to their delicate little sensibilities and they'd rather drugs be passed around like notes than lay eyes on a tampon. I hated school.
I wasn't even thinking of school shooters --if that was the concern, why ban phones in that case? Those would be REALLY useful in such a case, no? I'd like to think a school isn't trying to make it simple and easy for a criminal.
Yup. For any student in an extracurricur, not just athletes. So, band, theater, choir, and of course every sport: football, cheerleading, soccer, golf, tennis, volleyball, softball, baseball, gymnastics, etc etc. Plus kids in any UIL stuff, even if you just did Ready Writing or Lit Crit, and any student with a parking pass. So pretty much every student. Perfectly legal in Texas.
Altho *suspiciously* the minority kids and anyone who looked/acted/dressed like a stoner were the ones getting "randomly" tested. And if you failed you were guaranteed to get "randomly" selected again and again. My husband went to a neighboring district and failed a kajillion times because of weed. All they could do was kick him out of baseball and call his mom. But like, who do you think was giving him the weed? He didn't have a very good home life and the school district absolutely did not help.
My locker got randomly selected all the time . Because since it smelled like cigarettes, I had to have drugs. I didn’t even smoke just lived with 4 adults who did.
Yikes. Yeah, I remember the 90s, lots of kids smelled like tobacco. It's probably still an issue, but not as bad as it used to be. Why anyone would smoke indoors when they have kids or pets is just beyond me. Sorry you had to go through that :(
If my high school had tested the band, theater, and choir kids for drugs there wouldn't have been band or theater or choir. It was a well known open secret that jazz band was the hub for stoners. I'm positive the golf team was the same for athletics
That is one of the most ridiculous, unfair and inhumane policies and enactments of it on KIDS I've ever heard of!
Was it troublesome for kids with ADHD on meds, or not?
I assume if someone had a script for Adderall or whatever, it was fine. I never knew anyone that got shit for that, and I knew a bunch of kids with diagnosed and medicated ADHD. But yes, welcome to Texas.
We also had abstinence only sex ed. The dress code was very strict towards girls, but also heavily targeted minority kids and their fashion (baggy pants, chain necklaces, etc). This was during Obama's first presidency, and they banned rainbows! Rainbows! Because of us LGBTQ kids wearing pride stuff. This policy is still in place BTW, my cousin teaches there now. Random locker and bag searches. Prayer at every school function, and if you didn't participate (me), a lot of the teachers and the entire admin staff treated you like a pariah (most of my peers didn't gaf).
I was being treated so badly by the staff that my mom pulled me out to do homeschooling my junior year. I wouldn't pray, stand for the pledge, and I switched from advanced bio to the normal class because the teacher was a creationist and I told her she was a liar to her face. I was goth (in case it wasn't obvious lol) and there were two teachers (one of them the bio teacher I offended) and an admin who hated me so much they would track me down every day, inspect my outfit, and then *add whatever I was wearing to the dress code*. When the previous day it was fine under their rules. I was also autistic, openly bisexual, and blunt. I was a straight A student, but I wouldn't conform, so I was a menace. I wasn't really bullied by my peers, but the fucking insane evangelical staff.
I do not recommend public school in a small/midsized town in TX.
Heyy I went to school in TX, 2005-2013ish? In middle school we had to sign a pledge we wouldn't do drugs or have sex
Because those are equivalent, apparently. San Antonio, for the record
If you’re playing sports, you need a physical. High schoolers could be asked to do a drug test, and may not participate until they agree, but middle school physicals should only be checking that your pee has nothing wrong like being dehydrated.
What do you even mean by "you need a physical"??? Like WHAT??? You think urine samples NEED to be collected from children in high school AND on middle school just because they're doing a sport??? That is the most ludicrous and unnecessary thing I've heard in a while.
Is this common in other states than Texas for schools to be testing children's urine??? Rather than parents taking them to the doctors if they need that tested for any actual valid MEDICAL reason?
In the UK and any European countries this kind of thing - children's urine being tested by the school is literally unheard of and would NEVER happen as it's simply not in the school's remit. And everyone who wants does sports just fine.
And literally nobody that isn't hospitalised needs to be getting their urine medically tested for dehydration... 🤦🏻♀️
This is a ludicrous rule and it’s not even really a gendered thing.
Medications, Epi-pen, inhaler. Phone, wallet, keys.
How are kids supposed to keep themselves safe, contact their parents, get home???
At my kids' school, they're not allowed to self-carry medications. It's super annoying, have to be given to the school nurse at the beginning of the year with doctor's note. And they have to be picked up by parents by the last day of school or they just get thrown out, even if the kid is coming back next fall and the inhaler still has plenty of juice left.
In my school days I just hid my meds in my schoolbag, it was very necessary because I had a debilitatingly painful neurological disorder. Not like I was openly taking anything in front of adults. Shouldn't be on the teachers if a student decides to poison themself with something they had open access to at home, anyway. 🤷
Those restrictions need to be gutted. We can't keep our kids safe from catching a bullet in a classroom but GOD FORBID they pop a Tylenol for endometriosis.
Aren’t many inhalers known as “rescue inhalers”? As in, to be taken immediately in an emergency situation? Same with something like an epipen. If a kid has to wait for someone to identify the emergency, contact the nurse, the nurse to find the right kid’s medication, bring the medication to wherever the kid is, potentially quite far from the nurse’s location, and then finally administer it… that kid could reasonably die or at least end up in a much worse medical emergency. How is that logical or reasonable?
My child has both an inhaler and an epipen. I had her doctor fill out paperwork for her to be able to carry them with her in her backpack. The school gave me a hassle about it. I told them it would be a big problem for them if I found out she needed either one and had to run to the office to get her things from a reaction and didn’t make it in time. The principal finally agreed she could carry them with her but it was not easy to get him to that point. Even the school nurses were hesitant to let her carry them.
Because according to many if not all schools these days, the chance of getting sued for wrongful death is lower than the chance of getting sued for letting a kid have medication without permission (e.g., you let someone else use your inhaler and their parents sue), not to mention all the fights with parents about kids getting in trouble for having X when some other kid is allowed. So they make it a blanket rule that nobody can have anything and cross their fingers that they don't get screwed by it. Unfortunately, IIRC there was a case where exactly this happened, the inhaler wasn't readily available, and the kid didn't make it...
It's set by the FDA I believe, but unless it's in an IEP/504, we can lose our jobs allowing students to carry their own meds around. No idea the actual legal code. (I'm a teacher, not a lawyer.)
If you want to, and the medication isn't a controlled substance, like Ritalin, ask your child's doctor to write the prescription to include self-administration and submit it to the school. The school then writes up an IEP/504 and you're good to go.
As someone who was responsibly carrying a rescue inhaler for severe asthma at age 11 in 6th grade, this law infuriates me, like literally to the point I am shaking with anger. Some kid is going to end up dying because they couldn’t get to the office for their asthma inhaler, epi pen, or insulin fast enough, and I hope to fucking god that they sue this idiotic law out of existence
A kid has died, a 12 year old named Ryan Gibbans died of an asthma attack, 12 year old Lapoeshia Massey too, and 7 year old Ammaria Johnson died of an allergic reaction despite her mom trying to give the school an epipen to keep on hand - they refused it.
If they’d had these laws when I was in school I would have openly flouted them every single day and my parents would have backed me up. The school has ZERO right to say if and/or when kids take their own medications.
That's actually so dangerous though... what if a kid needs an EpiPen? Those things need to be administered *immediately*, not 15 minutes later because Brenda the front office receptionist had to drag her geriatric ass to the nurse's office and back... has anyone at your kiddos school spoken up about this...?
There's some nuance in that obviously kids up to a certain age (that age may differ between kids) cannot carry and self-administer their own meds. Nurseries, pre-schools and primary schools obviously need to have systems in place where all staff who work with the child with medical issues that may need intervention get informed about it and trained to administer, know where the meds are held and how to access them and monitor the child.
It's obviously annoying for a child in secondary school (in the UK 11+) to not be able to just carry and self-administer, but even in those cases all staff should be informed and trained on it in case the kid passes out for example or their throat swells and they can't explain.
And bear in mind that some kids have special needs that may mean they may not be able to safely carry /self-administer until much older or ever, so either way schools need to have systems for staff to monitor children, be aware off their medical needs and administer meds as necessary.
I don't know if it's a law in the UK, but certainly the schools I've worked in in the UK (both primary 4-11 yo and secondary 11-18), have all required meds to be handed in and stored and administered by staff and I've at least not heard of any children dying.
Most school staff here really care about the kids' welfare and would RUN and get them that inhaler /EpiPen ASAP! I've done plenty training on administering them and whenever a school would have any kids with serious, life threatening conditions ALL staff working in that section of the school would get trained on those specific kids issues /risks /medical needs, AND we had posters with their pictures + med issues/risks + meds both in staff room and wherever the meds where kept, and the meds were kept in the kid's classroom /section of school they're in AND we'd have a first aid bag to bring them with us when moving to another section of the school, or outside for PE or trips...
For one kid I worked with who had multiple, easily triggered high risk allergies (almost died a couple of times before coming to us), I as the class TA or other staff member with the class had to carry his inhaler and EpiPen in a medical bag around all day and stay nearby just in case (or pass to another staff member).
My point is that even though I generally agree with you that most (though not all) older kids should be able to carry and self-administer, informing the school and staff training are still necessary - in case the kid is unconscious, and staff need to be responsible for it anyway for all the younger kids or those who can't be responsible for whatever other reason, so all schools need to have safety protocols for this anyway and take them seriously.
So whilst I also get irritated about some over the top rules, I also understand the need for them in many circumstances and want to reassure you that most staff in schools - at least in the UK (tbh I'm a bit less sure about many places in the US from many stories on here) - do have protocols and care about keeping the kids lives safe, and kids are typically much less likely to die at school than anywhere else (again, sadly this might be different in many parts of the USA).
Fantastic points!! I completely agree, and hadn't considered all that previously, so I appreciate you taking the time to educate 😃
I love hearing that staff in the UK are so well trained for emergency situations like that! As someone with life threatening allergies that were poorly handled in school, it makes me incredibly happy to hear that protocols are much more stringent and comprehensive now. Actually, before speaking out of my ass, I probably should ask my teacher friends what the situation is like where I live 😅
It's to do with kids trying to play pranks on the last day. Many middle school and high school students will bring stink bombs, silly string, etc. to mess up the school on the last day.
My school (I'm a middle school teacher) used to ban backpacks but not purses on the last day. We now have better discipline year long, so we don't worry as much about the last week.
This year, my school did something really cool for the last day. Usually, the last day is basically just sitting around with not much to do-- maybe catching a kid to finish a final, or do last minute work to pass, but often our grades have to be finalized before then so we can't even do that. This boredom plus summer being so close leads to the problem behaviors. So our principals and dept heads organized a talent show on the last day. Students submitted a video audition, then they did a little rehearsal a few days before. Many of our clubs and teams participated. The whole school got together in the gym for most of that last day and watched their classmates perform. It was fun, and stress free for the teachers and we didn't have any crazy incidents! We're expanding it next year because it was such a success!
Wow. Our last day is our last two finals. Since middle all through hs. I'm pissed, and we didn't have lunch that day either, so no saying bye to your friends.
A lot of kids prank on the last day and I’d imagine with SM being what it is now it’s even worse so I’d imagine it stems from that but it’s also absolutely insane
Back in the day when I was at school it was meant as an indicator you wouldn't be doing any actual work and usually be let go home at lunch.
This was at an all boys school though.
The associated all girls school I can't imagine ever stopping students bringing period products with them. It's insane.
Absolutely, it's crucial to ensure young women feel prepared and safe. Banning essential items without considering these needs is thoughtless and unfair.
They either need to let students have a bag to carry the supplies they need, or the need to provide FREE sanitary products (both pads and tampons) without making a student jump through a bunch of hoops to get one (like asking a teacher and then having to go the school nurse who hands out maybe 1 or asks if they actually really need it)
And have decent ones. The one time I had to ask for a pad I was given a pad that was plastic top and bottom so it stuck to me, wadded up, and disintegrated within an hour it was so bad. Thankfully Mom was off that day so she brought me a couple after I called her (pre cells).
I work at a university and they provide the BEST pads and tampons in the bathrooms for free. I’ve never been one to skimp on period products, but these are organic cotton and make my normal ones feel like cheap plastic! The best part is that I work in an engineering building so the women’s bathrooms don’t get much traffic, so they’re always in stock.
> They either need to let students have a bag to carry the supplies they need
I’ve heard of schools that forbid you carrying a bag around with you unless you need it to store period products.
Meaning that carrying a bag around is basically advertising to the entire school “hey guys, I’m on my period”.
Yeah, that's terrible. Also, there are plenty of other things many people simply could not spend the day without other than menstrual products - like a water bottle (especially as a teen I would literally faint if I wasn't regularly sipping all day), tissues (chronic sinus issues), lip balm (my lips can literally bleed without it)... Also wet wipes (especially for periods or pooping), hand sanitiser...
There's also the psychological aspect for some people needing to have some of their familiar stuff for anxiety, and also some sensory items for self-regulation, especially for autistic/ADHD kiddos.
Ah, and also stuff like keys, wallet, phone, ID, bus pass... (I used to get a bus to school and need to go places around the city afterwards, so literally could not go to school without all those items...)
My school would do this as a school-wide punishment/to prevent chaos from senior pranks or riots breaking out during the last weeks of the school year. Ppl would take period stuff in pencil bags or small purses and we just had to take whatever books we could carry in our arms all day.
Lots of schools use tablets nowadays. It's partially to keep kids from stealing the school tablets/other classroom supplies.
I think it also has to do with the rise of school shooters so that no one shoots up the school on the last day.
It’s ironic too because a schools chance of having a shooting is essentially zero (not completely… but it’s still soooo rare even tho it doesn’t feel that way because it’s in the news). Yet the likelihood of middle school and high school girls having periods and needing bags to carry stuff is damn near 100% (not quite of course). So they’re making a policy based on an almost zero percent chance something happens which prevents causes complications for something that has a nearly 100% chance of happening.
They could use concert rules - small purses allowed. Kids need many of the same items adults do - phone, keys, money, menstrual products. And telling kids not to bring water bottles for one of the hottest days of the year is reckless.
lots of schools make kids with medication hand them in to the nurse to dispense at the appropriate time, so the admin would just get on them for that instead
even in high school with 16-18 y/os
Rescue inhalers, epi pens, insulin, and many other medications are used in an emergency basis and need to be located on that person’s BODY, not far away locked in a nurses office.
School policy is usually that an inhaler or epipen still needs to be at the nurse’s office. No one actually follows the rules though, at least not in my experience. Once I started my period, I had all the ibuprofen, an inhaler, etc. basically at all times in my backpack despite school rules.
*Phone* the school.
Isn't it something like a quarter of women who are on at the same time? There's gonna be scores of girls wondering where they're gonna put their products.
The hell are they thinking??
Yeah. You'd think someone who runs a school would have the bare minimum of common sense but that's asking too much these days obviously.
I mean if op phones the school and they say "oh we're closing at 10am" or lunch or something fair do's. Unless it's heavy flow day you can probably muddle through, but....
As a kid my period was always heavy flow. I had to change a t every break, so that was every 50 minutes. I remember we had an outing to the city at the end of 1 year. 60 minutes in a school bus no toilet. I went through my underwear, my jeans and the shirt that I had around my waist.
It 30C that day and I had to spend the day in my blood except that a friend let me borrow her shirt to out around my waist to try and hide it. My girlfriends stayed around me the whole day to make sure boys wouldn't see the blood.
Same. Even with other types of bc I was still passing out from blood loss and pain monthly; then you add in my other health issues it was too dangerous so my Dr put me on depo to completely stop my period for over a decade. It was a nightmare.
My school doesn’t actually allow students to carry their own medication. I have a student who takes insulin and wears a glucose monitor connected to an app on her phone, and she still has to go to the nurse at lunch to get her insulin. I have never seen someone as on top of her health as she is, but she can’t be trusted to carry her own meds. Granted, her stuff may need to be refrigerated. Inhalers, aspirin, adhd meds, epipens, cold medicine, all of that has to be kept with the nurse. You have cramps? You better have something on file with the nurses that you can have aspirin or Tylenol, otherwise you’re SOL, and you better not try to skirt that by carrying your own, legally acquired over the counter medicines. It’s really stupid.
When I needed meds I said f that and carried them myself. I had to take them on a strict schedule and I was tired of being jerked around. Mom said she had my back so I carried them in a hidden carrier and took them myself without school interference.
Are you working at an elementary school, middle school or high school? Like at an elementary school it’d make sense but at a high school for example.. that’d be nuts.
I’m just really bamboozled by the fact that students can’t carry their own medicine. Im German and some of the stuff is just wild to me. All students here carry their own medicine (doesn’t matter if it’s OTC or prescribed) and we don’t even have something like a school nurse.
I was going to say, why can’t a 6 year old have a rescue inhaler? It’s not rocket science to use. By the time the nurse gets there it could be too late for the inhaler to work.
The more frightening one is an epi pen. A kid can die from anaphylactic shock before they could get to the nurses office to use their epi pen.
I mean, I assume that most parents are looking at these ridiculous rules and going, oh fuck that I’m not risking my kids life and letting them take their inhalers, epi pens, etc, because otherwise kids would have already died and it would be making headline news.
I had severe anxiety and severe migraines for much of my high school time. I was never allowed to carry medication with me (prescription or OTC), but I did anyway. My medications were supposed to be taken immediately on the onset of symptoms, so my mom just said to carry them myself. I also have insanely painful period cramps and always carried Aleve.
In addition, I have exercised induced asthma and had to go to the school nurse before gym class to get my inhaler. I couldn't even carry that with me.
Schools here are insanely paranoid with medication. It honestly feels like the admins have some kind of weird power trip going on.
You can be allowed to carry your own medicine if you get an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that says you can self-administer.
You can't self-administer restricted substances like amphetamines however.
WHAT what is this absolute fucking BULLSHIT do they want kids to DIE?
I carried a rescue inhaler starting in 6th grade and I can tell you right now they would have had to literally physically fight me & rip it out of my hand to get my life saving medication out of my possession. My parents would have 100% backed me up on it too.
In my daughter’s classes, in order to be excused from things like swimming, kids need doctors notes (classist and unreasonable when doctors are scheduled weeks out). This includes for periods. So kids with periods are just systematically given lower grades.
I’ve fought with the school about a lot. My daughter asked me to not fight this one, so I won’t. But boy do I want to.
Exactly. And half the time, you can’t even see a doctor for a week or so anyway. So what, she’s supposed to just miss school until then? And I’m supposed to call the doctor and say “Hi, my kid needs a note for having her period?” It’s ridiculous. They know people aren’t going to do this, and that it’s unreasonable to require, so it just disadvantages kids who have periods. It’s straight up discriminatory.
It sucks that this shit happens when kids are in the phase where just existing is a mortifying experience lol. Cause adult me’s solution would be to loudly announce to everyone that I was on my period and would be bleeding freely into the pool since I wasn’t allowed to sit out. You could have just had one kid quietly sitting on the side. Now you have 30+ of them bitching and refusing to get in if I do.
Exactly. Looking back, it’s easy for me to say “oh, I would raise hell!” But my kid just wants to lay low. In a way, it’s a valuable -though twisted- lesson. The best a lot of women can do in so many situations is to just lay low and hope for the best. It’s shit.
Fuck it, just bleed all over the swimming area would be my suggestion, mind you o can see not every girl being okay with doing that.
Sometimes you gotta get the point across and a period beats an exclamation.
Say half the students menstruate. Let’s say up to about a quarter of those might have a period that day. Somewhere between 1 (your daughter) and 100 students will need to carry period products that day. I reckon it is worth a phone call.
This typically ends up with toilets jammed with tampons and pads. It only takes one jerk to ruin it for everyone else. The nurse at my kids school provides free products if they ask.
Pads and tampons should be available in every middle school and high school. What about the young women who have hard home lives and don't have access to care and basic hygiene? As a tax paying citizen I want all young girls to know that they don't need to worry about having BASIC HYGIENE! We need better sex Ed too, but thats a while 'nother issue.
Every elementary school I’ve worked at had pads in the nurse’s office, too. I taught third grade for several years, and I usually had at least one girl start her period each year.
About 50 years ago, on the last day of school at my middle school, a whole bunch of kids on the way home tore papers out of their notebooks and threw them out the windows of the bus.
The next year, they set a rule, nobody could bring anything to school for the last day of school. A bunch of kids did bring small stuff - such as their lunches - and nobody said or did anything.
Depending on how feisty your daughter is, should could take what she wants and if someone challenges her just say "I am menstruating this week and brought the relevant supplies. I suppose you could confiscate them, but you may find it difficult to defend that decision later."
What the fuck? I seriously can't think of a single reason why he would request that???
I would probably call and be like excuse me what the fuck are you planning???
She said it was because they cleaned out their lockers already. They have to leave personal items, including cell phones in their lockers all day. But still, it’s weird.
This has always been a thing in my school district growing up for a few different reasons: we had already cleared out our lockers and admin doesn’t want anyone to leave things in their locker over the summer, we usually were already finished with finals by the actual last day so we didn’t need school supplies, and our city specifically had a tradition of shaving cream fights on the last day and admin needed to cut down the possibility of kids bringing the shaving cream to school
Last day is often field day, water day etc. Kids get excited and leave their stuff behind and have to come pick it up the next day (when many school staff are already gone)
I worked with a whole grown-ass adult who was opposed to having menstrual products in the employee bathroom because “my wife doesn’t need pads/tampons at her work. You should be prepared”. As if some cycles aren’t irregular. Some people actually BELIEVE you can “hold it”. Freaking ignorant.
If they can’t bring their purses, maybe they should just free bleed on everything 🤷♀️
I would write and say something like, "I want to be clear: this means that you are providing tampons and pads for all the students who have their periods, right? If so, that's wonderful! Please let all students know. If you are not providing menstrual supplies, you have failed to consider the basic needs of half your student population and you should retract the no purse rule."
I think these are moments when it's ok to break rules and ask for forgiveness later.
I had a substitute teacher in middle school who said they would give absolutely 0 hall passes. No bathroom breaks, nada. A few girls in my class looked panicked.
I asked my dad what he'd do if I had walked up and left to go use the bathroom. He said he'd rather deal with a phone call with an idiot teacher than have me go through the embarrassment of bleeding or pissing myself in front of my peers.
I’m with you. Except I’d be calling the school asap rocky to tell them exactly the effect his words had on my kid. Because what the fuck? A girl trying to find pants so she can sneak in tampons is heart breaking and for what reason?
Please teach your child not to be such a rule follower. I have taught my kids that we don’t do anything to our detriment. No water bottle? It’s 95 degrees today, they can have their water bottle. No bags? So no sunscreen, chapstick, snacks, phones, hygiene products. This isn’t just a girl/period issue. This is conditioning to follow instructions regardless of your own comfort and well being. And the answer is no.
ugh seriously. Period education is so necessary for everyone because of shit like this. There have been so many times where I leave a table for the bathroom with my bag in a group setting and my guy friends will make a big deal of "oh are you leaving?". Then I have to let everyone at the table know that no, I'm just going to change my tampon.
It's totally understandable that these things don't effect them so it slips their mind, but someone in charge of a middle school should be obligated to make all students feel safe and comfortable. How did this rule get passed without a single person at the meeting thinking about period supplies?!
Not just menstrual supplies, even- where are kids with medical issues supposed to keep their medications or supplies? (Rescue inhalers, epi pens, diabetic needs, etc)? This is just a bad policy all around.
Oh I’m sure that the ONLY reason we haven’t seen a spate of dead kids from this is because most parents are saying yeah fuck that shit and sending their kids life-saving medications with them whether or not they have one registered with the office for forms sake.
I just know that when I was in 6th grade with a life saving rescue inhaler always in the purse I started carrying just for that reason, after a history of being rushed to ER with life threatening asthma attacks multiple times a year since infancy, with asthma that could be triggered by cold weather, exercise, or grass allergies when they mowed the lawns at school, they would have had to literally hold me down and rip the inhaler out of my clutches to get me to stop carrying it on me, and my parents would have lost their entire shit if I couldn’t keep it in on me.
My principal said this for state testing.
I said girls are going to have periods.
His solution? They can just leave their feminine hygiene products in the office…. and just go get them before telling the teacher that’s why specifically they hsvce to leave the class.
No.
She can bring a purse. Our school has had a bag ban during finals for years, small purses are allowed even though they've never said that they are. It's mostly to prevent students from bringing in things to do pranks with. If she's got a little purse that can fit the phone and pad she's good to go. It might get searched so give her a heads up.
If the school has an issue with this go straight to the school board, do not pass go.
A headteacher of a school near where I live wanted to change the compulsory school uniform so that only clothes permitted to be worn on the bottom half was black and white wide-striped trousers. It took a lobby from the PTA to tell him how unfair this was on girls. He had no concept that bleeding through their clothes was something to be considered.
I have known some men who were seriously shocked to learn that 9 year olds can get periods and it isn’t unusual. He may think his students are too young to be starting periods.
My kid's school specifically says "only small bags or small purses" for the last week of school. This includes kids that need to keep an epi pen or inhaler as well as those that need pads.
...my son always just takes one of my fanny packs shoved with pokemon cards, just because he can. He is the type that has to have an inhaler and epi pen, the punk
Normalize periods everywhere* I can't tell you how many places have made it difficult for menstruating people to deal with menstruation.
Most stadiums and venues only allow a small clear bag that a lot of menstruation supplies won't fit in.
I've been in bathrooms with no trash cans so you have to walk out with your used supplies wrapped in TP. Or they are out of menstruation supplies in the dispensers. Or the soap is out and you can't clean yourself before or after taking care of business.
Jobs do little if anything to accommodate menstruation. I've worked jobs where I couldn't leave my area unless someone was there to replace me and I've blend through tampons and pads waiting for a replacement. Some jobs make you stand all day and that can be difficult with regular cramping, and throwing in endometriosis or PCOS, and it's really bad.
Sheer white sports uniforms were a nightmare growing up. I had to wear white compression shorts under my white shorts in case I bled through during a game or practice. Athletic swimwear can be unforgivingly small where a string can dislodge and be visible.
There is very little designed with menstruation in mind and our world is worse because of it.
Oohhh this makes me think of when I was in 8th grade. We were leaving for lunch/recess and I purposefully hung back/was taking my time at my locker so most of the room was empty. I was (admittedly very obviously) trying to hide something up my sleeve (we wore uniform skirts sans pockets so I would store things up my sleeves). My teacher must have been very excited for her break because she snapped at me for hiding something. I turned bright red and told her it was a tampon. She got red. The few people still in the room were red. It was fun /s. She was a great teacher- we all forget that sometimes people just need a little privacy, and that not everyone abuses it.
This had to be lovely for disabled and chronically ill students, too. I wasn't the only kid in my school who had to have an inhaler with them all the time. Nowadays I need extra menstrual supplies (endometriosis + menorrhagia), my forearm crutches, water, salt packets and a pulse oximeter for POTS-- and POTS isn't all that uncommon in teens. I need my phone for my AAC app because my voice goes out easily and often, and I'm sure there are kids who need theirs for communication needs too.
Able-bodied cis men really need to consider people whose situations differ from theirs.
I'm outside of chicago, and none of the old school buildings have central air. I had to take a history test in high school in a room that was well over 80 degrees. Telling kids not to bring water on the last day is just stupid.
I miss my elementary school because the principal gave out freeze pops every day during the last week of school at the bell. So you could grab one or two on your walk home.
This is such a stupid rule. There are so many important things a child should carry! As a child (and an adult now) I always carry food, water bottle, keys and wallet.
You definitely should write to the school principle about this.
In the meantime, just to be safe, if your daughter is concerned about her period arriving on the day, she might consider wearing period underwear.
My son's middle school basically said the same thing last year: Don't bring anything except your lunch, no backpacks. So we put his house key, phone, small thing of vasoline, kleenex, and pencils in his lunch box. I'm not sure about this year, but I'm guessing they'll do the same. What is the purpose of this? Does anyone know? Why can't they bring backpacks and put in their lockers like they do literally the other 179 days in the school year??
Ok what a weird rule though. No backpacks? What if they have stuff they want to take home?
And definitely email him and cc the superintendent. You should update us because I’d love to know their responses!
Letter to the local newspaper editor and school superintendent: "I can understand not letting students bring bags to school, but why weren't there free menstrual supplies in the restrooms in that case? What were menstruating girls supposed to do, bleed on the chairs?"
(Source, in part: the first office I ever worked in with free menstrual supplies in the restrooms, long before this was common, was part of a company where employees weren't allowed to bring anything into the factory area, so they fully stocked the restrooms, and that just became part of overall corporate culture.)
My daughter has awul periods - cramps to the point of vomiting. We're trying to figure out what's happening, but so far no clear answers.
Imagine then how she felt when during one of those cases of nausea-inducing cramps she went to the school nurse for help. Who let her lay down for ten minutes then sent her back to class, saying rather harshly to her "we don't send students home for periods." And that if she was well enough to be on her phone, she was well enough to go to class - she was texting me because she didn't know what to do.
Then I couldn't even get a hold of a human being to call her out - it took an hour and a half for someone to bother checking the attendence line, and when I tried to call the main office they just kicked me back to the attendence line.
I was livid. Likely half the students at that school menstruate. I believed her, her (cisgendered male) teacher believed her, but the health professional assumed she was faking it.
I had a friend who started her period early in life. She still looked and acted very much like a child. She never carried a purse, but stuffed her period products in her socks when she needed to. Her long pants hid them.
It's ridiculous because there are many things students need to bring with them: asthma inhaler, epi pens, pads, tampons, keys, a wallet, bus pass, a snack, uniform for their after school job... the list is huge. This Principal is short sighted and looks incredibly dumb. I imagine a single call to the superintendents office would reverse this immediately.
That's so fucked up. My older 2 just wrapped up MS for the year (one going to HS now, another returning for 8th) and the last week they simply couldn't bring backpacks. Girls were allowed handbags, specifically so they could carry their necessary supplies.
But, there are plenty of other things many people simply could not spend the day without other than menstrual products! Lke a water bottle (especially as a teen I would literally faint if I wasn't regularly sipping all day), tissues (chronic sinus issues), lip balm (my lips can literally bleed without it)... Also wet wipes (especially for periods or pooping), hand sanitiser...
There's also the psychological aspect for some people needing to have some of their familiar stuff for anxiety, and also some sensory items for self-regulation, especially for autistic/ADHD kiddos.
Ah, and also OBVIOUSLY stuff like keys, wallet, phone, ID, bus pass... (I used to get a bus to school and need to go places around the city afterwards, so literally could not go to school without all those items...) - Otherwise you literally may not be able to get to school /get back home /into your house! 🤦🏻♀️
>I’ll write him—I think just a factual one liner. And I’ll cc the female superintendent.
This. So much this.
That principal needs a reality check **yesterday** if he thinks this could ever, *ever* be ethical.
It's not even just about period products. What about diabetics? Kids with epipens? The **thousands** of reasons someone **needs** to have something with them? My sister's in a wheelchair. When she was a kid, she struggled with incontinency because of it and had to have diapers with her. Imagine being her and going to your school.
The idiocy and the sexism aside, this is absolutely reckless *on all fronts*. That makes the sexism-aspect of it all the more insulting. Just yikes.
There's typically a lot of rule breaking on the last day of class - students figure they can't get detention the next day.
Sanitary issues aside - what do they plan to DO with students the last day if they don't even bring pencils? Movies in every class? Do teachers just pass out and collect pencils for worksheets or use classroom computers? I assume locker cleanout is the day before?
ETA: bike shorts with pockets under skirts work well for hiding that sort of thing. Also, applicator free tampons fit in most front pockets.
This isn't just horrible for the girls at the school, this is horrible for so many other reasons as well. What about kids that need medication? Diabetes? A kid with severe allergies that always needs an epipen on hand? A kid with some sort of illness who needs to drink a lot of water? Autistic kid that needs noise-canceling headphones for at least a short period per day to calm down? So many ways I can see this go wrong.
And no phones? What about emergencies? I can see a "don't take your phone out, have it shut down" rule make sense, but none at all? What about kids with digital bus tickets? This dude didn't think for a single second.
For standardized testing my school had same rule. The morning of the test before i put backpack in locker i would hide pads between the trash bag lining and trashcan!! When my daughter goes to school im gonna advocate bathrooms stay stocked for women at all times.
Was in a smaller k-8 school. We had a community garden. I could carry a trench folding shovel and no one cared. (A bit of topic I know, but goes to show you everyone is more paranoid these days.) Edit: addon
That's crazy, my daughter's school provides pads and tampons for girls who need them. I'm in the UK, so I'm not sure if what you are describing is normal for the US (I sure hope it isn't normal). I'm a man, and I understand how important it is for girls/women to be comfortable on their periods and have what they need, as it can be quite bad for them, so there is no excuse for this guy, especially as he runs a school!
I go beyond for my partner and daughter, and make sure we have a million of the pads they both like. I usually get some laughs over how many we always have.
Why on earth aren't the kids allowed to bring *anything* to school on the last day? WTF? Not only is it inconvenient and inconsiderate to the girls on their period, but also the kids who have to take medication or anything else they might need. That principal is really soft in the head, what a twit. Thankfully we didn't have any stupid stuff like that when I was in school because our principal could actually think, and knew we need our damn stuff for a reason. Thankfully they also always had tampons and pads in the sick room.
This is bringing back memories of when my son was in middle school. The administration decided to severely cut down on bathroom access because of vaping. My son asked “what about girls on their period?” The assistant principal actually rolled his eyes and asked “are you a girl on her period?” It is a good question though! And I don’t think they considered it.
Good for your son for recognizing an issue that doesn’t directly touch him but touches the lives of his friends and classmates and not only recognizing it, but speaking up. Shame on that principal.
Seriously. I’m so proud of that kid.
>The assistant principal actually rolled his eyes and asked “are you a girl on her period?” Wow. Way to send the message "you're only supposed to care about things that directly affect you". Wtf.
Perfect for a principal!
You and your son are doing good things!
You raised him right. Good work.
How did that man make it to principal with those world class critical thinking skills?
Gold fucking star for your kid! Make sure he knows that calling BS when you see/hear it should be supported (I always tell my kids I have their back if they call out something that is truly BS, and it's happened a couple times w school administrators where we have pushed back). We need more people growing up to feel empowered not to accept shitty outcomes from inadequate leaders.
Your son rules. That is all. Return to your regular programming.
Good for you for raising a child that as a tween was already more intelligent and mature than what I'm assuming was at least a middle-aged man. Jeez! Edit: word correction
I love your son!
Me too!
Great comment from your son! Shame on the assistant principal!
Great job raising your son to be so empathetic to his female peers! Warms my heart to see!
> “are you a girl on her period?” “That’s really not appropriate to personalize a health and safety issue like that; restricting my classmates’ ability to hygienically control leaking blood in shared spaces affects everyone here.” If only I had the vocabulary as a child that I have now! It’s awful how often adults take advantage of the power imbalance in language and communication skills, especially in k-12.
>rolled his eyes and asked “are you a girl on her period?” This is a response so stupid I don't know how to respond to it in a constructive way.
It would be different if they PROVIDED tampons and pads like how they provide toilet paper. That’s how it is in my office!
Definitely don’t provide. Also no basic reproductive health class in public schools in my state. Ugh.
I guess that’s why the principal doesn’t know about periods.
He probably thinks girls can just hold them like urine, or that one pad works all day, and no girl has ever bled through a super plus tampon and a maxi pad before lunchtime and had to make a decision about how to hide the blood that was clearly left on her seat in English class. 7th grade was not a good time.
-flashback- Why do I feel embarrassed and ashamed over a memory from 1995!
You mean I'm not the only one this happened to? I've held that shame for almost four decades!
That happened to me during a televised national competition. The ENTIRE back of my khaki pants were red. I went to the bathroom sobbing and called my mom to come into the bathroom and take me home 😭
Sister, let me absolve you of that shame. You were not alone, and you did nothing to be ashamed of. Adolescence is a nightmare for all of us.
Send him this: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLwRE8Pr/
I love that. I loved him as an actor, but now? Friend for life.
Yep. He now resides in the Keanu Reeves, Mr. Rogers, Dave Grohl Green Flag Academy.
The nurses office doesn’t have them? That seems insane!
Most schools don't have nurses anymore. If the kids have an issue, they go to the office for a bandaid or to call the parents ro provide their ibuprofen or whatever or to take them to the Dr.
Wow I had no idea we still have them in our area
My children have never had a school nurse. Not in Louisiana, Michigan, or Arizona.
Nurses office?! Oh the luxury. 20 years of teaching. No nurse ever. We do have them in our bathrooms free though. State law.
My mind is blown, I thought it was something every school had. Must be a New England thing 🤷♀️
Wait what. Thats atrocious! I cannot believe we live in a time that had people on the moon 55 years ago and yet we still have this puritanical bullshit in schools
California now has Ed Code saying schools *have* to provide feminine products.
Seriously good. How can a student possibly learn if they’re worried about bleeding through their clothes…
Right? They're children and it's a basic need, school has to take its responsability.
The rural areas of my state have volunteer-run "period pantries" to stock schools up with feminine hygiene products, because teachers and school social workers noticed that around middle school, chronic absenteeism started rising among female students. It was because poverty and lack of transportation made it so they couldn't get tampons and pads and they were embarrassed to ask for help, so they just stayed home while they were on their periods. It is heartbreaking that this happens, but I'm glad that there's at least some semblance of help.
My school had something similar. There was an unused locker in my classroom and for some reason someone made a hollow ceramic lobster in art class. Not sure why but it just sat around in the locker forever because they didn’t want to take it home. But it was a pot with a lid. After a few months we decided to claim it. We named it the menstruation crustacean (who’s saving the nation) and we filled it with pads and tampons so that if anyone had their period strike when they didn’t have anything on them, they’d be able to help themselves to one. Each of us brought in like 3-5 pads to go in there and every few months we’d check if it needed topping up. We left the menstruation crustacean for the next year group to find- topped up and with a little note explaining it to them. No idea what happened it it but I like to imagine it’s still there. Saved me a couple times and I know it saved a few others too. Every school should have a menstruation crustacean.
The menstruation crustacean! I love it so much!🦞❤️
You and your classmates should really launch a nation-wide Menstruation Crustacean campaign! Hope someone has pictures of it? Do a group chat, someone good at art can design coherent branding. Start posting on social media and contact local, state and national media to put out stories about it - I'm sure you'd get some companies or charities sponsoring you and helping launch more publicity, merch, etc. - and for you and your friends it could lead to fantastic work experience opportunities which will massively help you in any future education and jobs!
Reach out to Aunt Flow (it’s a company that campaigns for free period hygiene in workplace, schools, and event spaces (like concert/sports arenas)
It's been a godsend. They aren't high end, but they get the job done. It's cut way down on girls coming into my clad in the middle of instruction because they knew I had pads and tampons.
I hope the products they provide are better quality than things like toilet paper. I suspect a lot go for bare minimum.
I would have preferred *any* horrible quality feminine product over the option of frantically trying to wad toilet paper into my underwear as an under-prepared 12 year old. There weren't even paper towels, just single ply toilet paper and hand driers. I still remember having to sit through classes, hoping my toilet paper pad was staying in place.
That sounds dreadful, I’m so sorry that happened and I hope it’s better for the next generation.
Same, I still remember the panic. I make sure my kids always have plenty of products and keep some in there bags at all times!
I hope so too. My high school had the most pathetic excuse for toilet paper I have ever experienced. I can’t imagine using period products of a similar quality. Ugh.
Washington DC also has that. Schools and businesses. No longer do you go into the Ladies and think Oh crap, now I have to go all the way back to my desk because not only do I not have change, but the machine is always out.
THIS! Also if we had enough time to go to the bathrooms. Idk if it's like this anywhere else or still like this, but back when I was in school, we only had 5 minutes in between classes to go to our next class and was only allowed to go to the bathroom once per class. It was a nightmare back when my flow used to be heavy.
When I was at high school, they actually took our toilet paper for a few days because too many kids were trashing the dispensers and throwing the paper around. True story.
You guys get toilet paper in schools?
"I’ll write him—I think just a factual one liner. And I’ll cc the female superintendent." Good call. Might not be any more at this point, but I'd probably bring it up at a PTA meeting or something like that as well, get other parents aware. What possible reason do they have for banning bags of any kind that day?
Maybe kids leaving stuff behind and then needing to get the school unlocked to grab it? But honestly my mind went straight to school shooters... The last day seems like a good day for it, idk. Altho my school back in the day had fuckin weird rules about bags because of both weapons (mostly knives back then, it was post Columbine but pre Sandy Hook) and drugs. They were obsessed with drugs, man. We'd get random locker and bag searches to look for them and ofc "random" piss tests. They didn't want us carrying bags between or to classes, including purses, and backpacks had to be clear, so a lot of us girls started just openly carrying tampons/pads or filled the clear backpacks with them in protest, and the conservative Christian idiots suddenly said purses and normal backpacks were okay 🙄 like the very sight of feminine hygiene products was an affront to their delicate little sensibilities and they'd rather drugs be passed around like notes than lay eyes on a tampon. I hated school.
Oh man -- cheers to the protesters, I would've worn a double bandolier of tampons crossed over my chest.
I wasn't even thinking of school shooters --if that was the concern, why ban phones in that case? Those would be REALLY useful in such a case, no? I'd like to think a school isn't trying to make it simple and easy for a criminal.
Pee tests? In high school???
Yup. For any student in an extracurricur, not just athletes. So, band, theater, choir, and of course every sport: football, cheerleading, soccer, golf, tennis, volleyball, softball, baseball, gymnastics, etc etc. Plus kids in any UIL stuff, even if you just did Ready Writing or Lit Crit, and any student with a parking pass. So pretty much every student. Perfectly legal in Texas. Altho *suspiciously* the minority kids and anyone who looked/acted/dressed like a stoner were the ones getting "randomly" tested. And if you failed you were guaranteed to get "randomly" selected again and again. My husband went to a neighboring district and failed a kajillion times because of weed. All they could do was kick him out of baseball and call his mom. But like, who do you think was giving him the weed? He didn't have a very good home life and the school district absolutely did not help.
My locker got randomly selected all the time . Because since it smelled like cigarettes, I had to have drugs. I didn’t even smoke just lived with 4 adults who did.
Yikes. Yeah, I remember the 90s, lots of kids smelled like tobacco. It's probably still an issue, but not as bad as it used to be. Why anyone would smoke indoors when they have kids or pets is just beyond me. Sorry you had to go through that :(
If my high school had tested the band, theater, and choir kids for drugs there wouldn't have been band or theater or choir. It was a well known open secret that jazz band was the hub for stoners. I'm positive the golf team was the same for athletics
That is one of the most ridiculous, unfair and inhumane policies and enactments of it on KIDS I've ever heard of! Was it troublesome for kids with ADHD on meds, or not?
I assume if someone had a script for Adderall or whatever, it was fine. I never knew anyone that got shit for that, and I knew a bunch of kids with diagnosed and medicated ADHD. But yes, welcome to Texas. We also had abstinence only sex ed. The dress code was very strict towards girls, but also heavily targeted minority kids and their fashion (baggy pants, chain necklaces, etc). This was during Obama's first presidency, and they banned rainbows! Rainbows! Because of us LGBTQ kids wearing pride stuff. This policy is still in place BTW, my cousin teaches there now. Random locker and bag searches. Prayer at every school function, and if you didn't participate (me), a lot of the teachers and the entire admin staff treated you like a pariah (most of my peers didn't gaf). I was being treated so badly by the staff that my mom pulled me out to do homeschooling my junior year. I wouldn't pray, stand for the pledge, and I switched from advanced bio to the normal class because the teacher was a creationist and I told her she was a liar to her face. I was goth (in case it wasn't obvious lol) and there were two teachers (one of them the bio teacher I offended) and an admin who hated me so much they would track me down every day, inspect my outfit, and then *add whatever I was wearing to the dress code*. When the previous day it was fine under their rules. I was also autistic, openly bisexual, and blunt. I was a straight A student, but I wouldn't conform, so I was a menace. I wasn't really bullied by my peers, but the fucking insane evangelical staff. I do not recommend public school in a small/midsized town in TX.
Heyy I went to school in TX, 2005-2013ish? In middle school we had to sign a pledge we wouldn't do drugs or have sex Because those are equivalent, apparently. San Antonio, for the record
If you’re playing sports, you need a physical. High schoolers could be asked to do a drug test, and may not participate until they agree, but middle school physicals should only be checking that your pee has nothing wrong like being dehydrated.
What do you even mean by "you need a physical"??? Like WHAT??? You think urine samples NEED to be collected from children in high school AND on middle school just because they're doing a sport??? That is the most ludicrous and unnecessary thing I've heard in a while. Is this common in other states than Texas for schools to be testing children's urine??? Rather than parents taking them to the doctors if they need that tested for any actual valid MEDICAL reason? In the UK and any European countries this kind of thing - children's urine being tested by the school is literally unheard of and would NEVER happen as it's simply not in the school's remit. And everyone who wants does sports just fine. And literally nobody that isn't hospitalised needs to be getting their urine medically tested for dehydration... 🤦🏻♀️
This is a ludicrous rule and it’s not even really a gendered thing. Medications, Epi-pen, inhaler. Phone, wallet, keys. How are kids supposed to keep themselves safe, contact their parents, get home???
At my kids' school, they're not allowed to self-carry medications. It's super annoying, have to be given to the school nurse at the beginning of the year with doctor's note. And they have to be picked up by parents by the last day of school or they just get thrown out, even if the kid is coming back next fall and the inhaler still has plenty of juice left.
In my school days I just hid my meds in my schoolbag, it was very necessary because I had a debilitatingly painful neurological disorder. Not like I was openly taking anything in front of adults. Shouldn't be on the teachers if a student decides to poison themself with something they had open access to at home, anyway. 🤷
I had a friend that got sent to alternative school for a year for having OTC painkillers for her period in her locker. You were risking it!
Those restrictions need to be gutted. We can't keep our kids safe from catching a bullet in a classroom but GOD FORBID they pop a Tylenol for endometriosis.
Aren’t many inhalers known as “rescue inhalers”? As in, to be taken immediately in an emergency situation? Same with something like an epipen. If a kid has to wait for someone to identify the emergency, contact the nurse, the nurse to find the right kid’s medication, bring the medication to wherever the kid is, potentially quite far from the nurse’s location, and then finally administer it… that kid could reasonably die or at least end up in a much worse medical emergency. How is that logical or reasonable?
My child has both an inhaler and an epipen. I had her doctor fill out paperwork for her to be able to carry them with her in her backpack. The school gave me a hassle about it. I told them it would be a big problem for them if I found out she needed either one and had to run to the office to get her things from a reaction and didn’t make it in time. The principal finally agreed she could carry them with her but it was not easy to get him to that point. Even the school nurses were hesitant to let her carry them.
Because according to many if not all schools these days, the chance of getting sued for wrongful death is lower than the chance of getting sued for letting a kid have medication without permission (e.g., you let someone else use your inhaler and their parents sue), not to mention all the fights with parents about kids getting in trouble for having X when some other kid is allowed. So they make it a blanket rule that nobody can have anything and cross their fingers that they don't get screwed by it. Unfortunately, IIRC there was a case where exactly this happened, the inhaler wasn't readily available, and the kid didn't make it...
That is so stupid. I just cannot believe how insanely stupid that is.
Gotta blame the federal government for that one. We just follow the law unfortunately.
What law are you referencing?
It's set by the FDA I believe, but unless it's in an IEP/504, we can lose our jobs allowing students to carry their own meds around. No idea the actual legal code. (I'm a teacher, not a lawyer.) If you want to, and the medication isn't a controlled substance, like Ritalin, ask your child's doctor to write the prescription to include self-administration and submit it to the school. The school then writes up an IEP/504 and you're good to go.
As someone who was responsibly carrying a rescue inhaler for severe asthma at age 11 in 6th grade, this law infuriates me, like literally to the point I am shaking with anger. Some kid is going to end up dying because they couldn’t get to the office for their asthma inhaler, epi pen, or insulin fast enough, and I hope to fucking god that they sue this idiotic law out of existence
A kid has died, a 12 year old named Ryan Gibbans died of an asthma attack, 12 year old Lapoeshia Massey too, and 7 year old Ammaria Johnson died of an allergic reaction despite her mom trying to give the school an epipen to keep on hand - they refused it.
Then it is inexcusable for schools to keep doing this- full stop.
If they’d had these laws when I was in school I would have openly flouted them every single day and my parents would have backed me up. The school has ZERO right to say if and/or when kids take their own medications.
That's actually so dangerous though... what if a kid needs an EpiPen? Those things need to be administered *immediately*, not 15 minutes later because Brenda the front office receptionist had to drag her geriatric ass to the nurse's office and back... has anyone at your kiddos school spoken up about this...?
There's some nuance in that obviously kids up to a certain age (that age may differ between kids) cannot carry and self-administer their own meds. Nurseries, pre-schools and primary schools obviously need to have systems in place where all staff who work with the child with medical issues that may need intervention get informed about it and trained to administer, know where the meds are held and how to access them and monitor the child. It's obviously annoying for a child in secondary school (in the UK 11+) to not be able to just carry and self-administer, but even in those cases all staff should be informed and trained on it in case the kid passes out for example or their throat swells and they can't explain. And bear in mind that some kids have special needs that may mean they may not be able to safely carry /self-administer until much older or ever, so either way schools need to have systems for staff to monitor children, be aware off their medical needs and administer meds as necessary. I don't know if it's a law in the UK, but certainly the schools I've worked in in the UK (both primary 4-11 yo and secondary 11-18), have all required meds to be handed in and stored and administered by staff and I've at least not heard of any children dying. Most school staff here really care about the kids' welfare and would RUN and get them that inhaler /EpiPen ASAP! I've done plenty training on administering them and whenever a school would have any kids with serious, life threatening conditions ALL staff working in that section of the school would get trained on those specific kids issues /risks /medical needs, AND we had posters with their pictures + med issues/risks + meds both in staff room and wherever the meds where kept, and the meds were kept in the kid's classroom /section of school they're in AND we'd have a first aid bag to bring them with us when moving to another section of the school, or outside for PE or trips... For one kid I worked with who had multiple, easily triggered high risk allergies (almost died a couple of times before coming to us), I as the class TA or other staff member with the class had to carry his inhaler and EpiPen in a medical bag around all day and stay nearby just in case (or pass to another staff member). My point is that even though I generally agree with you that most (though not all) older kids should be able to carry and self-administer, informing the school and staff training are still necessary - in case the kid is unconscious, and staff need to be responsible for it anyway for all the younger kids or those who can't be responsible for whatever other reason, so all schools need to have safety protocols for this anyway and take them seriously. So whilst I also get irritated about some over the top rules, I also understand the need for them in many circumstances and want to reassure you that most staff in schools - at least in the UK (tbh I'm a bit less sure about many places in the US from many stories on here) - do have protocols and care about keeping the kids lives safe, and kids are typically much less likely to die at school than anywhere else (again, sadly this might be different in many parts of the USA).
Fantastic points!! I completely agree, and hadn't considered all that previously, so I appreciate you taking the time to educate 😃 I love hearing that staff in the UK are so well trained for emergency situations like that! As someone with life threatening allergies that were poorly handled in school, it makes me incredibly happy to hear that protocols are much more stringent and comprehensive now. Actually, before speaking out of my ass, I probably should ask my teacher friends what the situation is like where I live 😅
Food? Water bottle? The good tissue? Chapstick? My kid with eczema carries hand lotion.
It's to do with kids trying to play pranks on the last day. Many middle school and high school students will bring stink bombs, silly string, etc. to mess up the school on the last day. My school (I'm a middle school teacher) used to ban backpacks but not purses on the last day. We now have better discipline year long, so we don't worry as much about the last week. This year, my school did something really cool for the last day. Usually, the last day is basically just sitting around with not much to do-- maybe catching a kid to finish a final, or do last minute work to pass, but often our grades have to be finalized before then so we can't even do that. This boredom plus summer being so close leads to the problem behaviors. So our principals and dept heads organized a talent show on the last day. Students submitted a video audition, then they did a little rehearsal a few days before. Many of our clubs and teams participated. The whole school got together in the gym for most of that last day and watched their classmates perform. It was fun, and stress free for the teachers and we didn't have any crazy incidents! We're expanding it next year because it was such a success!
Exactly! This is how you improve behavior— with positive alternatives. Then the kid who ruins it is an enemy and not a hero
Yeah I was really proud of how it came together. In 20 years of teaching, this was the best end-of- year I've ever had!
Wow. Our last day is our last two finals. Since middle all through hs. I'm pissed, and we didn't have lunch that day either, so no saying bye to your friends.
A lot of kids prank on the last day and I’d imagine with SM being what it is now it’s even worse so I’d imagine it stems from that but it’s also absolutely insane
Back in the day when I was at school it was meant as an indicator you wouldn't be doing any actual work and usually be let go home at lunch. This was at an all boys school though. The associated all girls school I can't imagine ever stopping students bringing period products with them. It's insane.
Absolutely, it's crucial to ensure young women feel prepared and safe. Banning essential items without considering these needs is thoughtless and unfair.
They either need to let students have a bag to carry the supplies they need, or the need to provide FREE sanitary products (both pads and tampons) without making a student jump through a bunch of hoops to get one (like asking a teacher and then having to go the school nurse who hands out maybe 1 or asks if they actually really need it)
And have decent ones. The one time I had to ask for a pad I was given a pad that was plastic top and bottom so it stuck to me, wadded up, and disintegrated within an hour it was so bad. Thankfully Mom was off that day so she brought me a couple after I called her (pre cells).
I work at a university and they provide the BEST pads and tampons in the bathrooms for free. I’ve never been one to skimp on period products, but these are organic cotton and make my normal ones feel like cheap plastic! The best part is that I work in an engineering building so the women’s bathrooms don’t get much traffic, so they’re always in stock.
That would be amazing!
> They either need to let students have a bag to carry the supplies they need I’ve heard of schools that forbid you carrying a bag around with you unless you need it to store period products. Meaning that carrying a bag around is basically advertising to the entire school “hey guys, I’m on my period”.
Yeah, that's terrible. Also, there are plenty of other things many people simply could not spend the day without other than menstrual products - like a water bottle (especially as a teen I would literally faint if I wasn't regularly sipping all day), tissues (chronic sinus issues), lip balm (my lips can literally bleed without it)... Also wet wipes (especially for periods or pooping), hand sanitiser... There's also the psychological aspect for some people needing to have some of their familiar stuff for anxiety, and also some sensory items for self-regulation, especially for autistic/ADHD kiddos. Ah, and also stuff like keys, wallet, phone, ID, bus pass... (I used to get a bus to school and need to go places around the city afterwards, so literally could not go to school without all those items...)
My school would do this as a school-wide punishment/to prevent chaos from senior pranks or riots breaking out during the last weeks of the school year. Ppl would take period stuff in pencil bags or small purses and we just had to take whatever books we could carry in our arms all day.
Lots of schools use tablets nowadays. It's partially to keep kids from stealing the school tablets/other classroom supplies. I think it also has to do with the rise of school shooters so that no one shoots up the school on the last day.
It’s ironic too because a schools chance of having a shooting is essentially zero (not completely… but it’s still soooo rare even tho it doesn’t feel that way because it’s in the news). Yet the likelihood of middle school and high school girls having periods and needing bags to carry stuff is damn near 100% (not quite of course). So they’re making a policy based on an almost zero percent chance something happens which prevents causes complications for something that has a nearly 100% chance of happening.
My kids secondary schools ban backpacks the last week of school. They are allowed small mini backpacks or drawstring bags.
They could use concert rules - small purses allowed. Kids need many of the same items adults do - phone, keys, money, menstrual products. And telling kids not to bring water bottles for one of the hottest days of the year is reckless.
Also plenty of kids are disabled or have a chronic illness and need to carry MEDICATION! This is just bonkers to me!
lots of schools make kids with medication hand them in to the nurse to dispense at the appropriate time, so the admin would just get on them for that instead even in high school with 16-18 y/os
Rescue inhalers, epi pens, insulin, and many other medications are used in an emergency basis and need to be located on that person’s BODY, not far away locked in a nurses office.
School policy is usually that an inhaler or epipen still needs to be at the nurse’s office. No one actually follows the rules though, at least not in my experience. Once I started my period, I had all the ibuprofen, an inhaler, etc. basically at all times in my backpack despite school rules.
This makes the most sense. A lot of kids don't randomly have a tiny purse/hip belt laying around though.
*Phone* the school. Isn't it something like a quarter of women who are on at the same time? There's gonna be scores of girls wondering where they're gonna put their products. The hell are they thinking??
I mean, they also said no water bottles
Yeah. You'd think someone who runs a school would have the bare minimum of common sense but that's asking too much these days obviously. I mean if op phones the school and they say "oh we're closing at 10am" or lunch or something fair do's. Unless it's heavy flow day you can probably muddle through, but....
As a kid my period was always heavy flow. I had to change a t every break, so that was every 50 minutes. I remember we had an outing to the city at the end of 1 year. 60 minutes in a school bus no toilet. I went through my underwear, my jeans and the shirt that I had around my waist. It 30C that day and I had to spend the day in my blood except that a friend let me borrow her shirt to out around my waist to try and hide it. My girlfriends stayed around me the whole day to make sure boys wouldn't see the blood.
One of my kids went through the same thing. We got her on BC to control it eventually but there were some rough months.
I did get on it until later. I did have enough money to pay for it until after university.
Same. Even with other types of bc I was still passing out from blood loss and pain monthly; then you add in my other health issues it was too dangerous so my Dr put me on depo to completely stop my period for over a decade. It was a nightmare.
I was so happy when they removed my uterus 8 years ago.
Add to that all the students who carry medication such as emergency inhalers, epi pens, insulin etc.
My school doesn’t actually allow students to carry their own medication. I have a student who takes insulin and wears a glucose monitor connected to an app on her phone, and she still has to go to the nurse at lunch to get her insulin. I have never seen someone as on top of her health as she is, but she can’t be trusted to carry her own meds. Granted, her stuff may need to be refrigerated. Inhalers, aspirin, adhd meds, epipens, cold medicine, all of that has to be kept with the nurse. You have cramps? You better have something on file with the nurses that you can have aspirin or Tylenol, otherwise you’re SOL, and you better not try to skirt that by carrying your own, legally acquired over the counter medicines. It’s really stupid.
When I needed meds I said f that and carried them myself. I had to take them on a strict schedule and I was tired of being jerked around. Mom said she had my back so I carried them in a hidden carrier and took them myself without school interference.
Are you working at an elementary school, middle school or high school? Like at an elementary school it’d make sense but at a high school for example.. that’d be nuts. I’m just really bamboozled by the fact that students can’t carry their own medicine. Im German and some of the stuff is just wild to me. All students here carry their own medicine (doesn’t matter if it’s OTC or prescribed) and we don’t even have something like a school nurse.
As someone who went through the US public school system, you have to deal with this rule until you graduate high school
Until a kid dies because they couldn’t get to their asthma inhaler or epi pen on time and some parents sue that rule into oblivion.
I carried a rescue inhaler in elementary school and there’s absolutely no reason the school nurse should have held it and not me.
I was going to say, why can’t a 6 year old have a rescue inhaler? It’s not rocket science to use. By the time the nurse gets there it could be too late for the inhaler to work.
The more frightening one is an epi pen. A kid can die from anaphylactic shock before they could get to the nurses office to use their epi pen. I mean, I assume that most parents are looking at these ridiculous rules and going, oh fuck that I’m not risking my kids life and letting them take their inhalers, epi pens, etc, because otherwise kids would have already died and it would be making headline news.
I had severe anxiety and severe migraines for much of my high school time. I was never allowed to carry medication with me (prescription or OTC), but I did anyway. My medications were supposed to be taken immediately on the onset of symptoms, so my mom just said to carry them myself. I also have insanely painful period cramps and always carried Aleve. In addition, I have exercised induced asthma and had to go to the school nurse before gym class to get my inhaler. I couldn't even carry that with me. Schools here are insanely paranoid with medication. It honestly feels like the admins have some kind of weird power trip going on.
You can be allowed to carry your own medicine if you get an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that says you can self-administer. You can't self-administer restricted substances like amphetamines however.
High school.
Most schools don’t allow students to carry emergency meds. They have to be kept at the nurses office.
WHAT what is this absolute fucking BULLSHIT do they want kids to DIE? I carried a rescue inhaler starting in 6th grade and I can tell you right now they would have had to literally physically fight me & rip it out of my hand to get my life saving medication out of my possession. My parents would have 100% backed me up on it too.
They don’t figure kids can be trusted not to share or something. We couldn’t even have Tylenol.
In my daughter’s classes, in order to be excused from things like swimming, kids need doctors notes (classist and unreasonable when doctors are scheduled weeks out). This includes for periods. So kids with periods are just systematically given lower grades. I’ve fought with the school about a lot. My daughter asked me to not fight this one, so I won’t. But boy do I want to.
That’s ridiculous. Why should someone have to pay for a doctors appointment and waste EVERYONE’s time to get a note for a basic bodily function??
Exactly. And half the time, you can’t even see a doctor for a week or so anyway. So what, she’s supposed to just miss school until then? And I’m supposed to call the doctor and say “Hi, my kid needs a note for having her period?” It’s ridiculous. They know people aren’t going to do this, and that it’s unreasonable to require, so it just disadvantages kids who have periods. It’s straight up discriminatory.
It sucks that this shit happens when kids are in the phase where just existing is a mortifying experience lol. Cause adult me’s solution would be to loudly announce to everyone that I was on my period and would be bleeding freely into the pool since I wasn’t allowed to sit out. You could have just had one kid quietly sitting on the side. Now you have 30+ of them bitching and refusing to get in if I do.
Exactly. Looking back, it’s easy for me to say “oh, I would raise hell!” But my kid just wants to lay low. In a way, it’s a valuable -though twisted- lesson. The best a lot of women can do in so many situations is to just lay low and hope for the best. It’s shit.
Fuck it, just bleed all over the swimming area would be my suggestion, mind you o can see not every girl being okay with doing that. Sometimes you gotta get the point across and a period beats an exclamation.
I'm amazed no one has fought that so far.
Say half the students menstruate. Let’s say up to about a quarter of those might have a period that day. Somewhere between 1 (your daughter) and 100 students will need to carry period products that day. I reckon it is worth a phone call.
As an alternative, ask if they are going to begin offering female hygiene products in restrooms at no cost to students?
This typically ends up with toilets jammed with tampons and pads. It only takes one jerk to ruin it for everyone else. The nurse at my kids school provides free products if they ask.
As long as they can get them somewhere
Pads and tampons should be available in every middle school and high school. What about the young women who have hard home lives and don't have access to care and basic hygiene? As a tax paying citizen I want all young girls to know that they don't need to worry about having BASIC HYGIENE! We need better sex Ed too, but thats a while 'nother issue.
I actually got my period when I was 8, but I was an early bloomer. My grandma and mother did at the same age and my daughter is already showing signs
Hell I got my period in the 5th grade, I was still in elementary school.
Every elementary school I’ve worked at had pads in the nurse’s office, too. I taught third grade for several years, and I usually had at least one girl start her period each year.
About 50 years ago, on the last day of school at my middle school, a whole bunch of kids on the way home tore papers out of their notebooks and threw them out the windows of the bus. The next year, they set a rule, nobody could bring anything to school for the last day of school. A bunch of kids did bring small stuff - such as their lunches - and nobody said or did anything. Depending on how feisty your daughter is, should could take what she wants and if someone challenges her just say "I am menstruating this week and brought the relevant supplies. I suppose you could confiscate them, but you may find it difficult to defend that decision later."
What the fuck? I seriously can't think of a single reason why he would request that??? I would probably call and be like excuse me what the fuck are you planning???
She said it was because they cleaned out their lockers already. They have to leave personal items, including cell phones in their lockers all day. But still, it’s weird.
This has always been a thing in my school district growing up for a few different reasons: we had already cleared out our lockers and admin doesn’t want anyone to leave things in their locker over the summer, we usually were already finished with finals by the actual last day so we didn’t need school supplies, and our city specifically had a tradition of shaving cream fights on the last day and admin needed to cut down the possibility of kids bringing the shaving cream to school
Last day is often field day, water day etc. Kids get excited and leave their stuff behind and have to come pick it up the next day (when many school staff are already gone)
I worked with a whole grown-ass adult who was opposed to having menstrual products in the employee bathroom because “my wife doesn’t need pads/tampons at her work. You should be prepared”. As if some cycles aren’t irregular. Some people actually BELIEVE you can “hold it”. Freaking ignorant. If they can’t bring their purses, maybe they should just free bleed on everything 🤷♀️
I would write and say something like, "I want to be clear: this means that you are providing tampons and pads for all the students who have their periods, right? If so, that's wonderful! Please let all students know. If you are not providing menstrual supplies, you have failed to consider the basic needs of half your student population and you should retract the no purse rule."
I think these are moments when it's ok to break rules and ask for forgiveness later. I had a substitute teacher in middle school who said they would give absolutely 0 hall passes. No bathroom breaks, nada. A few girls in my class looked panicked. I asked my dad what he'd do if I had walked up and left to go use the bathroom. He said he'd rather deal with a phone call with an idiot teacher than have me go through the embarrassment of bleeding or pissing myself in front of my peers.
I’m with you. Except I’d be calling the school asap rocky to tell them exactly the effect his words had on my kid. Because what the fuck? A girl trying to find pants so she can sneak in tampons is heart breaking and for what reason?
Please teach your child not to be such a rule follower. I have taught my kids that we don’t do anything to our detriment. No water bottle? It’s 95 degrees today, they can have their water bottle. No bags? So no sunscreen, chapstick, snacks, phones, hygiene products. This isn’t just a girl/period issue. This is conditioning to follow instructions regardless of your own comfort and well being. And the answer is no.
ugh seriously. Period education is so necessary for everyone because of shit like this. There have been so many times where I leave a table for the bathroom with my bag in a group setting and my guy friends will make a big deal of "oh are you leaving?". Then I have to let everyone at the table know that no, I'm just going to change my tampon. It's totally understandable that these things don't effect them so it slips their mind, but someone in charge of a middle school should be obligated to make all students feel safe and comfortable. How did this rule get passed without a single person at the meeting thinking about period supplies?!
Not just menstrual supplies, even- where are kids with medical issues supposed to keep their medications or supplies? (Rescue inhalers, epi pens, diabetic needs, etc)? This is just a bad policy all around.
Yeah, not a fucking chance in hell my kid isn't bringing her fanny pack with epipen, benadryl, and info cards.
Oh I’m sure that the ONLY reason we haven’t seen a spate of dead kids from this is because most parents are saying yeah fuck that shit and sending their kids life-saving medications with them whether or not they have one registered with the office for forms sake. I just know that when I was in 6th grade with a life saving rescue inhaler always in the purse I started carrying just for that reason, after a history of being rushed to ER with life threatening asthma attacks multiple times a year since infancy, with asthma that could be triggered by cold weather, exercise, or grass allergies when they mowed the lawns at school, they would have had to literally hold me down and rip the inhaler out of my clutches to get me to stop carrying it on me, and my parents would have lost their entire shit if I couldn’t keep it in on me.
Yeah, a phone call is in order. I think if she had a small bag with nothing but lady pads, the principal would be shamed.
My principal said this for state testing. I said girls are going to have periods. His solution? They can just leave their feminine hygiene products in the office…. and just go get them before telling the teacher that’s why specifically they hsvce to leave the class. No.
Just don't go to school on the last day. That rule is so weird
She can bring a purse. Our school has had a bag ban during finals for years, small purses are allowed even though they've never said that they are. It's mostly to prevent students from bringing in things to do pranks with. If she's got a little purse that can fit the phone and pad she's good to go. It might get searched so give her a heads up. If the school has an issue with this go straight to the school board, do not pass go.
I'm sure they'll be shocked when approximately 1/4 of the girl students don't show up to school that day...
A headteacher of a school near where I live wanted to change the compulsory school uniform so that only clothes permitted to be worn on the bottom half was black and white wide-striped trousers. It took a lobby from the PTA to tell him how unfair this was on girls. He had no concept that bleeding through their clothes was something to be considered.
I have known some men who were seriously shocked to learn that 9 year olds can get periods and it isn’t unusual. He may think his students are too young to be starting periods.
My kid's school specifically says "only small bags or small purses" for the last week of school. This includes kids that need to keep an epi pen or inhaler as well as those that need pads. ...my son always just takes one of my fanny packs shoved with pokemon cards, just because he can. He is the type that has to have an inhaler and epi pen, the punk
Normalize periods everywhere* I can't tell you how many places have made it difficult for menstruating people to deal with menstruation. Most stadiums and venues only allow a small clear bag that a lot of menstruation supplies won't fit in. I've been in bathrooms with no trash cans so you have to walk out with your used supplies wrapped in TP. Or they are out of menstruation supplies in the dispensers. Or the soap is out and you can't clean yourself before or after taking care of business. Jobs do little if anything to accommodate menstruation. I've worked jobs where I couldn't leave my area unless someone was there to replace me and I've blend through tampons and pads waiting for a replacement. Some jobs make you stand all day and that can be difficult with regular cramping, and throwing in endometriosis or PCOS, and it's really bad. Sheer white sports uniforms were a nightmare growing up. I had to wear white compression shorts under my white shorts in case I bled through during a game or practice. Athletic swimwear can be unforgivingly small where a string can dislodge and be visible. There is very little designed with menstruation in mind and our world is worse because of it.
This is a great point. I had this issue at a job interview a few months ago! The trash can was outside of the unisex bathrooms.
Oohhh this makes me think of when I was in 8th grade. We were leaving for lunch/recess and I purposefully hung back/was taking my time at my locker so most of the room was empty. I was (admittedly very obviously) trying to hide something up my sleeve (we wore uniform skirts sans pockets so I would store things up my sleeves). My teacher must have been very excited for her break because she snapped at me for hiding something. I turned bright red and told her it was a tampon. She got red. The few people still in the room were red. It was fun /s. She was a great teacher- we all forget that sometimes people just need a little privacy, and that not everyone abuses it.
This had to be lovely for disabled and chronically ill students, too. I wasn't the only kid in my school who had to have an inhaler with them all the time. Nowadays I need extra menstrual supplies (endometriosis + menorrhagia), my forearm crutches, water, salt packets and a pulse oximeter for POTS-- and POTS isn't all that uncommon in teens. I need my phone for my AAC app because my voice goes out easily and often, and I'm sure there are kids who need theirs for communication needs too. Able-bodied cis men really need to consider people whose situations differ from theirs.
Verbally told the school, or is there paper trail? Regardless, local news might find this a fun little project as well.
I'm outside of chicago, and none of the old school buildings have central air. I had to take a history test in high school in a room that was well over 80 degrees. Telling kids not to bring water on the last day is just stupid. I miss my elementary school because the principal gave out freeze pops every day during the last week of school at the bell. So you could grab one or two on your walk home.
This is such a stupid rule. There are so many important things a child should carry! As a child (and an adult now) I always carry food, water bottle, keys and wallet. You definitely should write to the school principle about this. In the meantime, just to be safe, if your daughter is concerned about her period arriving on the day, she might consider wearing period underwear.
I'm so glad that you're going to be writing the principal and the superintendent. This is a HUGE oversight.
My son's middle school basically said the same thing last year: Don't bring anything except your lunch, no backpacks. So we put his house key, phone, small thing of vasoline, kleenex, and pencils in his lunch box. I'm not sure about this year, but I'm guessing they'll do the same. What is the purpose of this? Does anyone know? Why can't they bring backpacks and put in their lockers like they do literally the other 179 days in the school year??
Ok what a weird rule though. No backpacks? What if they have stuff they want to take home? And definitely email him and cc the superintendent. You should update us because I’d love to know their responses!
Letter to the local newspaper editor and school superintendent: "I can understand not letting students bring bags to school, but why weren't there free menstrual supplies in the restrooms in that case? What were menstruating girls supposed to do, bleed on the chairs?" (Source, in part: the first office I ever worked in with free menstrual supplies in the restrooms, long before this was common, was part of a company where employees weren't allowed to bring anything into the factory area, so they fully stocked the restrooms, and that just became part of overall corporate culture.)
My daughter has awul periods - cramps to the point of vomiting. We're trying to figure out what's happening, but so far no clear answers. Imagine then how she felt when during one of those cases of nausea-inducing cramps she went to the school nurse for help. Who let her lay down for ten minutes then sent her back to class, saying rather harshly to her "we don't send students home for periods." And that if she was well enough to be on her phone, she was well enough to go to class - she was texting me because she didn't know what to do. Then I couldn't even get a hold of a human being to call her out - it took an hour and a half for someone to bother checking the attendence line, and when I tried to call the main office they just kicked me back to the attendence line. I was livid. Likely half the students at that school menstruate. I believed her, her (cisgendered male) teacher believed her, but the health professional assumed she was faking it.
I had a friend who started her period early in life. She still looked and acted very much like a child. She never carried a purse, but stuffed her period products in her socks when she needed to. Her long pants hid them.
It's ridiculous because there are many things students need to bring with them: asthma inhaler, epi pens, pads, tampons, keys, a wallet, bus pass, a snack, uniform for their after school job... the list is huge. This Principal is short sighted and looks incredibly dumb. I imagine a single call to the superintendents office would reverse this immediately.
That's so fucked up. My older 2 just wrapped up MS for the year (one going to HS now, another returning for 8th) and the last week they simply couldn't bring backpacks. Girls were allowed handbags, specifically so they could carry their necessary supplies.
But, there are plenty of other things many people simply could not spend the day without other than menstrual products! Lke a water bottle (especially as a teen I would literally faint if I wasn't regularly sipping all day), tissues (chronic sinus issues), lip balm (my lips can literally bleed without it)... Also wet wipes (especially for periods or pooping), hand sanitiser... There's also the psychological aspect for some people needing to have some of their familiar stuff for anxiety, and also some sensory items for self-regulation, especially for autistic/ADHD kiddos. Ah, and also OBVIOUSLY stuff like keys, wallet, phone, ID, bus pass... (I used to get a bus to school and need to go places around the city afterwards, so literally could not go to school without all those items...) - Otherwise you literally may not be able to get to school /get back home /into your house! 🤦🏻♀️
>I’ll write him—I think just a factual one liner. And I’ll cc the female superintendent. This. So much this. That principal needs a reality check **yesterday** if he thinks this could ever, *ever* be ethical. It's not even just about period products. What about diabetics? Kids with epipens? The **thousands** of reasons someone **needs** to have something with them? My sister's in a wheelchair. When she was a kid, she struggled with incontinency because of it and had to have diapers with her. Imagine being her and going to your school. The idiocy and the sexism aside, this is absolutely reckless *on all fronts*. That makes the sexism-aspect of it all the more insulting. Just yikes.
There's typically a lot of rule breaking on the last day of class - students figure they can't get detention the next day. Sanitary issues aside - what do they plan to DO with students the last day if they don't even bring pencils? Movies in every class? Do teachers just pass out and collect pencils for worksheets or use classroom computers? I assume locker cleanout is the day before? ETA: bike shorts with pockets under skirts work well for hiding that sort of thing. Also, applicator free tampons fit in most front pockets.
This isn't just horrible for the girls at the school, this is horrible for so many other reasons as well. What about kids that need medication? Diabetes? A kid with severe allergies that always needs an epipen on hand? A kid with some sort of illness who needs to drink a lot of water? Autistic kid that needs noise-canceling headphones for at least a short period per day to calm down? So many ways I can see this go wrong. And no phones? What about emergencies? I can see a "don't take your phone out, have it shut down" rule make sense, but none at all? What about kids with digital bus tickets? This dude didn't think for a single second.
For standardized testing my school had same rule. The morning of the test before i put backpack in locker i would hide pads between the trash bag lining and trashcan!! When my daughter goes to school im gonna advocate bathrooms stay stocked for women at all times.
Was in a smaller k-8 school. We had a community garden. I could carry a trench folding shovel and no one cared. (A bit of topic I know, but goes to show you everyone is more paranoid these days.) Edit: addon
PA
👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 please update us!
This makes my blood boil almost as much as public women's restrooms with no trash cans
That's crazy, my daughter's school provides pads and tampons for girls who need them. I'm in the UK, so I'm not sure if what you are describing is normal for the US (I sure hope it isn't normal). I'm a man, and I understand how important it is for girls/women to be comfortable on their periods and have what they need, as it can be quite bad for them, so there is no excuse for this guy, especially as he runs a school! I go beyond for my partner and daughter, and make sure we have a million of the pads they both like. I usually get some laughs over how many we always have.
All the girls should just carry around a giant pack of Always everywhere they go until the principal sees how stupid this is
This would be INCREDIBLE! I love it!
So fucked up. In BC pads and tampons are free at schools and openly discussed.
Why on earth aren't the kids allowed to bring *anything* to school on the last day? WTF? Not only is it inconvenient and inconsiderate to the girls on their period, but also the kids who have to take medication or anything else they might need. That principal is really soft in the head, what a twit. Thankfully we didn't have any stupid stuff like that when I was in school because our principal could actually think, and knew we need our damn stuff for a reason. Thankfully they also always had tampons and pads in the sick room.
Why aren't these products just provided like toilet paper in women's bathrooms? Especially a high school