Addie Woltil

Despite my four years at this high school, I have never once seen this box filled or seen a student ask a teacher for period products.

For my four years in high school, I have always seen a bin in our main floor bathroom, with the label, “All of these supplies are FREE for you to use! Please follow these rules: 1. Only take what you need. 2. Keep the bin organized. 3. Don’t be wasteful. 4. Throw your trash away.” And for my four years in high school, I have never once seen it filled.

The bin lies empty, and girls are forced to text or whisper a hushed question to their friends in need of assistance. While this has always remained a staple of girlhood, it shouldn’t have to be something that anyone worries about. School, a place where we’re required to be for at least seven hours a day, a place full of fear of judgment by our peers and the most judgment from ourselves, should not be a place where we have to worry about the availability of menstrual products. 

Students can also get menstrual products in the front office if they ask, and occasionally from teachers who keep them in their rooms. However, I had never even heard of this until I looked into it; not many teachers are telling students this because periods are still a topic of shame that we keep out of everyday conversations, despite affecting almost half of the school’s population. And keeping them hidden from sight and not easily accessible in our bathrooms is, again, contributing to the stigma around periods. 

The bin in the bathroom was paid for out of pocket by generous staff members who chose to commit some of their income to helping the school, but these products—these necessities—shouldn’t have to be paid for out of pocket; they should be provided by the school. 

Already, there has been a national and international debate over whether or not period products should cost as much as they do, and even whether or not they should be made tax-free or free altogether, as they are a necessity for most women. But, as is often the case with women’s health, it is overall neglected in lieu of “larger” issues that take center stage.

Adolescence is the age of perpetual embarrassment over existing, coupled with the overwhelming stigma surrounding periods and women’s bodies, and an environment is created where people feel uncomfortable asking for what they need, especially regarding period products. I have had teachers who limit us to four bathroom trips a semester. Only four for a semester that lasts five months.

I also have had teachers who limit bathroom use to “emergency only,” but what does emergency only even mean? Why are we limiting students’ access to a human right to use the bathroom?

If a student asks to use the bathroom, they don’t want to be asked whether or not it’s an emergency, because that is not at all important. They also don’t want to have to get up and ask their teacher for a pad or tampon in front of their peers or ask the office the same.

By making these products inaccessible to students, the stigma only grows, and the rules around the only free products provided—that are never there—only discourage students from using them.

The stigma around periods and period products isn’t going to end if we keep them locked away in drawers out of sight, asking probing questions like, “Is it an emergency?” and “Do you really need to go right now?” Period products should not be a luxury; they are a necessity, a necessity that all students should have easily accessible in the place they spend seven hours a day.