I like doschico’s token suggestion for avoiding theft and waste, which I do see as a concern. Toilet paper is routinely locked up because of potential for theft. The rolls are often secured to the dispensers with locking mechanisms.
My D taught in a NYC school for one year, at elementary level, and then spent a year as a fellow at a volunteer organization. One of the things that shocked her was how little the girls and women had in terms of hygiene and sanitary products. For Valentine’s Day, a women’s shelter that she volunteered for ran a toiletries drive. My HR department allowed me to set up a collection for her and one of the things that she asked for was tampons/pads. I got a couple of donations of those items, amongst others, and then used the cash I was given to go to Costco and buy big boxes of sanitary products. The shelter was a permanent one for women who could not transition out of supportive housing and the tampons and pads were located in a communal place. Until then, it had never occurred to me that women could do without tampons for lack of a few cents.
On an anecdotal note, speaking as someone who was wearing white jeans to school one day when my period arrived, I would have been so grateful to have had a free pad or tampon available to me. Instead, I had to call my father to come home from work and get me. My mom didn’t drive. I was humiliated beyond belief as only a 13 year old can be. I can’t fathom spending every month worrying that that could happen to me, especially since teenagers tend to be more irregular than adults.
I fully support this program and I am now wondering if my suburban NY district has this in place. Most of the girls here can well afford tampons, but again, accidents and irregularity do happen.
I used to work at a place that had free tampons/pads. It’s a godsend to any woman with an irregular period or ran out of supplies or just plain forgot.
There are school bathrooms in NYC that don’t have water? Soap? Toilet paper? How about the staff bathrooms?
http://www.uft.org/our-rights/access-toilet-facilities
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9790
“1910.141(d)(2)(ii)
Each lavatory shall be provided with hot and cold running water, or tepid running water.
1910.141(d)(2)(iii)
Hand soap or similar cleansing agents shall be provided.
1910.141(d)(2)(iv)
Individual hand towels or sections thereof, of cloth or paper, air blowers or clean individual sections of continuous cloth toweling, convenient to the lavatories, shall be provided.”
Looks like union rules and OSHA laws guarantee that the school staff have adequate restroom facilities.
I’m having a hard time understanding how schools can have no running water in student restrooms.
Perhaps someone running for NYC School Board needs to make this their platform – running water, soap, toilet paper and tampons for all students.
I found out recently that pads and tampons and toilet paper are not covered by food stamps, so I can see what a burden that would be for families on the edge. I think it’s a basic necessity that should be supplied by schools that have a large low income population. Personally, starting as a teenager, I never left the house without a couple of items in case my period started unexpectedly. My guess is that whatever is supplied is going to be some generic inexpensive product that kids will only take if they don’t have an alternative. But, I could be wrong.
I spent a fortune on sanitary supplies in high school because the bathrooms were extremely inhospitable and our schedules, with only 3 minutes between classes, made it impossible to go to the bathroom anyway except during lunch. So the only practical solution was to wear a pad every single day. (Tampons would have been cheaper but it’s uncomfortable to wear tampons if you’re not actually menstruating.)
To prevent flooding or because the building maintenance was so poor. Some schools keep the restrooms locked at all times and students have to go to the office to get a key, which prevents people from hanging out and being destructive. But in the time between classes, that’s tough. I think it’s great that the supplies should be provided and think it’s wonderful that there are schools where they can be provided right in the restroom with no problems.
I had extremely irregular periods in high school despite being on birth control. I always had things with me but sometimes they weren’t “enough” and I had to frantically run between female friends during passing time asking for extras.
Something like this would’ve been a godsend.
It never ceases to amaze me what people will argue about on cc 8-|
As a member of the UFT, lol at the thought that we actually get everything that we have a right to have.
As with toilet paper, paper towels and soap, I’m sure they’ll muddle through. Those things are provided in containers that make it difficult to take more than a bit at a time. I’m sure some engineer somewhere can devise a device for these that works similarly.
As the original article points out, this isn’t even a given in college. The student body president at Brown got school activity/club funds of some kind to provide them in “non-residential” bathrooms - meaning, I assume, bathrooms in academic buildings, gym locker rooms, the dining hall and such. What made it perhaps controversial (here on CC) was that at Brown they are also going in bathrooms that serve trans students, and also that part of the argument made had to do with low income students, both of which will get CCers going…
I’m all for it, but I can’t help thinking it is ironic that meanwhile families have to provide absolute basics such as pencils and paper for elementary school. Not to mention scissors, crayons, colored pencils, erasers, paste and glue, and the more esoteric items such as markers. And of course tissues for the classroom, and even hand soap.
I have noticed that those tampax machines where you could buy something in an emergency have mostly disappeared. Not good!
I do not think tampons, pads or even toilet paper are a “right to have.” But for the common good, should be provided. Would any of you want to be sitting on a seat covered in menstrual blood?
People worry about cost. Well, all of the population has to go to the bathroom many times a day. Only half the population needs pads or tampoons once a month for less than half their life. So it is probably less expensive than toilet paper.
I hope they are dispensed in some way that prohibits people from walking away with a handful, though. There are always those people who ruin it for everybody.
I don’t see “walking away with a handful” as a problem. If they need them at school, they may need them at home too. Walking away with a pile to use for pranks would be an issue. As would stealing multiple rolls of TP.
Which they likely will be.
Which they likely will be.
Exactly.
Personally, as much as I disagree with the government getting into the tampon distribution business, I think a better use of this funding would be to give students vouchers they could use to buy tampons. Or perhaps sell them at a subsidized price to students at the nurses office.
I think that free pads/tampons are likely to be wasted only if they are provided in some environments and not others. If our society progresses to the point where they are freely available in every properly equipped public bathroom – just as soap and towels are today – their presence would probably be taken for granted, and abuse would be minimal.
Many NYC public school bathrooms have neither soap nor towels.
And some don’t even have running water?
No running water in the bathrooms is a health hazard. Am assuming the reference is to a sink or 2, not to the flush toilets. One building I worked in had to send everyone home one day when there was an issue with an outside water pipe, and they had to turn the water off briefly to fix it. No tiodies,no work. We went home.