Meghan Lynch

Due to a new state law, Missouri school’s are required to provide period products in bathrooms for students.

The Missouri state legislature has recently enacted a new law stating that “requires every public school and charter school to provide period products in the restrooms for all middle school, junior high, and high school buildings.” 

The subject of free period products has been debated for several years now, but most women agree that having access to feminine products is extremely important, and while there have been period products in the nurse’s office available for students to use, they haven’t been in the most convenient spot. 

“I hope that this change will provide easier accessibility to feminine products for our students,” LHS nurse Melissa Simms said. 

While this policy is widely regarded as a positive thing students, like junior Kylie Brennan, have expressed their feelings that this new policy is long overdue. “It’s not like we can just choose to turn it off. The fact that we didn’t have it available to us right there where we needed it in the first place was a problem I’m glad they fixed.” 

Unfortunately, not a lot of states have created and/or passed laws that grant students access to free period products. Missouri has become one of the few states that gives its public school students access to free period products. According to the NCSL (National Conference of State Legislatures), “at least 12 states and the District of Columbia provide free menstrual products in schools.” 

The unpopularity of these types of laws could pose an issue for many students across the country. Junior Mac Reddick explained that not only are free and convenient period products good for emergencies or other common needs, but they are also extremely beneficial to students who are struggling financially. 

“They will have the actual resources they need to go through their menstrual cycle and they won’t have to feel ashamed,” Reddick said. It’s imperative that schools, especially public ones, be catering to all students, no matter what their situation is, and laws that mandate free period products are a good solution.

Naturally, with every new policy comes some sort of complaint. In this case, students have pointed out the low quality of these products. This particular issue, however, isn’t necessarily the school’s fault. Tampons and pads are very often taxed as “non-necessities,” meaning they are usually pretty expensive. That’s part of the reason women started calling on the government to make menstrual products free; the products are just getting too expensive and not everyone can afford the extra cost. So it’s understandable that the school can’t afford to stock our bathrooms with the highest quality products; it would just be too expensive. 

Let’s say there’s about one box of tampons and one box of pads in each restroom at a minimum and they restock them every week. That’s 16 boxes throughout the entire school, and the good quality ones cost on average $7 for tampons and $8 for pads. That’s about $120 per week, or $1,800 per semester. That’s quite a large amount of money to expect the school to pay, especially when school funding is often focused on other things, which is why our toilet paper is also fairly low quality. The problem isn’t the school not giving students access to good quality products, it’s that said products are overpriced and our school doesn’t have the money to pay for them.

Menstruation is something that affects half of the population, and yet it’s still stigmatized and ignored. Women rely on their governments to keep them safe and comfortable, and laws that mandate period products in public schools are a fantastic first step. Hopefully, the popularity of these laws will only grow as states continue to make our country a more accessible place for women.