Really? No ability to wash hands? How can that be? Are we talking on a regular basis, or an occasional plumbing problem?
I’m surprised the health dept would allow them to remain open.
On the other hand, I remember reading decades ago about how the highly paid school maintenance staff (at the time, higher than many if not most teachers) often refused to put in anything close to the work they were contracted for. and the schools were falling apart as a result.
We crossposted, @Consolation
According to @zoosermom in this quote, even running water isn’t a given.
“…often getting supplies from the nurse allows the student to use the staff bathroom which has such luxuries as water and toilet paper. It really is unfortunate how bad the condition of the restrooms is at many schools.”
This would be VERY effective – assuming the vouchers are printed on extremely absorbent paper.
/ Shirley, you can’t be serious.
Some of the schools have bathrooms that are absolutely disgusting. They may (sometimes) start out functional at the beginning of the day but after a whole day of vandalism and piggishness, anything that was there at the start is gone. In some schools there is no attempt to make the bathrooms functional and supplied. Some schools keep the bathroom doors locked at all times (requiring students to get a key), which actually helps prevent hanging out and acting up. I suspect that these schools are very different from what some of you are used to. Roaches, mice, mold, all sorts of stuff is common.
Hah - this thread brought back a memory. At the risk of giving TMI:
I started my first period during school hours in seventh grade. My mother and grandmother hadn’t gotten theirs until sixteen, so I wasn’t expecting it and hadn’t taken to carrying a pad around.
For reasons that pass understanding, it didn’t occur to me to go to the school nurse. We did have change-operated pad dispensers, but I didn’t have change, so I headed to the cafeteria to try to get coins from one of the workers. This was in the middle of a class, and was not the seventh graders lunch period, so a (male) teacher stopped me.
He asked me what I was doing. I told him I needed to get change. He asked, naturally, what I needed the change for, and I responded, somewhat frantically, “I can’t tell you.” When he pressed on, I finally broke down crying and said something to the effect of “I got a bathroom pass from Mrs. So-and So. And then I realized I had to buy the thing that I CAN’T TALK ABOUT.”
He went bright red, considerately avoided laughing, and gently suggested that I see the nurse.
In short, pads in middle and high school bathrooms = good idea.
@apprenticeprof, totally OT, but until this moment I thought you were a man!
I am in the camp that this is the same-league as toilet paper-- bodily function that can’t be controlled. While I am not particularly ashamed now, being a 12, 13, 14 year old girl is rough and I didn’t like having to carry a pencil pouch to the bathroom-- feels like you’re wearing a gigantic sign that tells everyone exactly what’s going on. Even worse if you went to the bathroom only to discover it had arrived unexpectedly, had to trudge back to class to get something from your bag, and ask to use the bathroom again. I understand the idea of wanting the school nurse to be in charge of distribution to prevent abuse, but depending on the school, hall monitors can be a little crazy. If I had a bathroom pass and was making my way to the nurse I’d surely be stopped and harassed until I told him I needed feminine products. It could also increase the length of your trip significantly if your school is big, forcing you to miss more class than necessary.
I have interned at a company that has baskets of free pads and tampons on the bathroom counter. While generally high-income accountants have different needs than low-income teenagers, the system definitely wasn’t abused. I’ve found that most women prefer a specific brand, usually a name brand, and the idea of having free products out is more of a back-up than most womens’ primary source. We can generally make do when we are expecting it, but it isn’t always cooperative, and I really believe offering these would be an overall positive.
'Fessing up, I thought the same thing…At least I wasn’t the only one!
ETA: Count me in as one who believes feminine products should be readily available. And @zoosermom as a product of the NYC school system, I completely get your description of school bathrooms. I’m saddened to hear that what I experienced in the 1970s is still the case 40 years later… 
Airlines have been giving free pads for decades in bathrooms. It is true that bathrooms are tricky in schools. In our HS, you had to know which ones you could use and profusely apologize & avoid eye contact if you had to use one that was the hangout of one of the gangs. They would bring in food, decorate it and smoke in it. It was like their home away from home.
Fortunately, the bathrooms at the schools I attended weren’t vandalized, but they definitely weren’t desirable places to visit.
Some health clubs also provide free supplies in the bathroom. It’s appreciated and I don’t know anyone shoving multiple supplies in their gym bag! But it’s a more affluent and mature crowd than a bunch of poorer schoolchildren.
I do think it would be wise to have some kind of dispenser that dispenses one at a time versus have them sit out in a box. It is just asking for trouble.
It’s not everywhere. My daughter, who has taught and student taught at several schools theorizes that the more overcrowded the schools the more everything breaks down. Like a slippery slope kind of situation!
I would actually support a situation where young women could get boxes or packages of what they need in the schools to take home with them. I can’t imagine that there can’t be a sensitive and respectful way to do that. They are expensive, and in a poor family if there’s a mom and one or two daughters, that can be a lot of money.
BTW, around here, many schools do not have a full-time school nurse, amazingly enough. One nurse may be shared between several schools.
And now female inmates in federal prisons get these personal hygiene items for free:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/health/federal-prisons-free-tampons-pads/index.html
It’s disturbing to me that they weren’t already getting these very basic hygiene items for free.
Hygiene items- toilet paper, pads, etc- should ALWAYS be free in a jail/prison (and schools) because (if for no other reason) it’s a public health measure. And yes, there is a need to have decent quality OPTIONS. These things are (literally) not one size fits all.