Make pads, tampons easy to get, mom says
Some school boards receptive to idea, others have rebuffed woman’s plan to make products available
Vancouver mom Selina Tribe wants to make pads and tampons freely available to students at school, and she’s gaining traction for the idea with trustees around the region.
Students trying to manage their periods at school must seek out and ask a counsellor, nurse or administrator for feminine hygiene products.
“Having your period is messy, troubling, and even though it doesn’t usually hurt, dealing with it when you are a kid at school can be tough,” said Tribe, a Douglas College instructor in geoscience.
With the support of the principal, Tribe paid from her own pocket to have a dispenser installed at her daughter’s school, Sir John Franklin elementary in Vancouver.
Then, when she talked to the Parent Advisory Committee about what she had done, they reimbursed her and paid for a year’s worth of products.
Dispensers cost between $200 and $300 each.
The point is to make them available and coin-free, because some girls who need these products are as young as 10, Tribe said.
“Almost everybody I talk to is really surprised to find out this is still being done,” she said.
The Vancouver School Board (VSB) has no coin-operated dispensers in its schools and Franklin is the only school with free access to feminine hygiene products in the restroom, a spokesperson says. “Generally at the present time, students can go the office for tampons and pads.”
Tribe wants to see free access to pads and tampons in school restrooms and has already pitched the idea to “receptive” trustees in Burnaby and New Westminster. She is still trying to convince the Richmond School Board to let her make a presentation and has been rebuffed by Coquitlam.
“Your period can be unexpected, you can’t always tell exactly when it’s going to strike,” she said.
That uncertainty can lead girls to wear tampons before their period starts, just in case, which raises the risk of toxic shock syndrome.
“Asking girls to go to the office to ask for these products leads to delays and embarrassment,” she said. “We provide all the toiletries that men need right in the bathroom and we should do the same for women.”
This week, Vancouver trustee Lois Chan-Pedley asked VSB staff to find out how much it would cost to install product dispensers in all Vancouver schools.
“You can get (period products) for free, but you have to ask for them,” Chan-Pedley said. “Soap, toilet paper, and paper towel are all hygiene products provided in school washrooms.”
Subjecting girls to the extra work and potential embarrassment of requesting pads and tampons sends the wrong message about their needs and their bodies, she said.
“We know women and girls are more likely to skip social and extracurricular activities if they can’t manage their periods, and sometimes they may even skip class,” she said. “I have certainly skipped activities and considered not going to school.”
Students were curious about the new dispenser at Franklin elementary and went through more product than expected for the first few weeks as the students tried the buttons to see what would happen.
“After that it just becomes part of the furniture,” Tribe. said “They are only at risk of being broken into if there is money inside.”