Feminine products should be available at public schools

Lizbeth Morales, Staff Writer

Is it that time of the month again and you are caught unprepared at school?

A lot of females go through the same problem each month- they unexpectedly get their cycles at school. If they don’t have any pads or tampons on hand, they’re out of luck. Some schools provide these necessities, either for free or for purchasing. If schools can provide food, water, and shelter, they should be able to provide feminine hygiene products, a basic need for female students.

Periods aren’t a choice. They’re natural. There are places where feminine hygiene products aren’t free, but condoms for men are. According to Georgia State’s IPORT, “There are currently 30,352 female students across all six campuses. That’s significantly more than the 19,908 male students, yet every one of those male students has access to free condoms if they need them. The female students, however, do not have access to free feminine hygiene products on campus.” Women don’t have access to the products at all because schools like Georgia State don’t have the dispensers installed. 

I strongly believe that all schools should provide pads and tampons. At the old Dover Intermediate School, they did provide them in bathroom, but you had to pay for them. If you didn’t have money to purchase them you had to go to the nurse’s office to get a pad. Although periods are nothing to be ashamed of, some girls are scared to go to the nurse’s office.

In this building, they don’t provide pads or tampons unless you go to the nurse’s office. The school is newly built with bigger classrooms, more hallways, spacious open classrooms, and a bigger pool. Everything is more modern. However, the school didn’t install feminine product dispensers.

Either way, I have learned my lesson and always have spare pads and tampons in my backpack. I just hope in the future the school district sees the need for these products and makes them more readily available for female students.