“Ms. V., do you have a sanitary napkin?”
This is a common question Mai Villasenor hears throughout the school year. Whether it’s in class, where she supports her assigned students as a special education classroom assistant (SECA), or during one of the extracurricular activities she sponsors, like the Filipino American Club, Villasenor finds herself discreetly passing period products to students.
On the days when she isn’t carrying a menstrual pad herself, she directs students to one of Lane Tech College Prep’s restrooms, but they aren’t always stocked. The main office serves as the schools most trusted source for students’ menstrual needs.
“You can always find them in the main office. But who thinks to go to the main office for a pad?” she asks.
Villasenor is a former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) student herself and remembers machines installed on the bathroom walls of Lincoln Park High School that required quarters to dispense tampons. She graduated before state law required all public schools to provide these products for free.
According to CPS, the district began providing free period products to students in 2019, when the Learn with Dignity Act first went into effect. CPS’ policy states that all schools serving grades 3-12 must make menstrual hygiene products available, at no cost to students, in bathrooms of every school building. The way that this has been implemented looks different in schools across the city.
What is menstrual equity?
Earlier this year, IL Latino News looked into the laws that support menstrual equity in Illinois.
Menstrual equity, or period equity, as first defined by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, co-founder of PERIOD., refers to the affordability, accessibility and safety of menstrual products for all people, including laws and policies that acknowledge and consider menstruation. Weiss-Wolf first coined the term in a 2015 Cosmopolitan article about ending the tampon tax, which many consider to have catapulted the menstrual equity…
Read the full article here
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