Schools should provide feminine hygiene items

Every female who survived puberty knows few situations are more embarrassing than being far from your home bathroom and having to scramble for a feminine hygiene product when your menstrual period takes you by surprise.

Have it happen at an N.M. school, where cliques run high, self-esteem runs low and many students struggle financially, and it can become a regular reason to skip class.

So we applaud the three Albuquerque Academy seniors — Noor Ali, Sophia Liem and Mireya Macías — who spent hundreds of hours researching, lobbying and helping draft House Bill 134 this session. It appropriates $3 million annually to the Public Education Department for free feminine hygiene products in N.M. public school bathrooms.

And we thank the sponsors who cut through claims it’s an unfair/unneeded handout — Reps. Christine Trujillo and Joy Garratt, both D-Albuquerque, Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, and Tara L. Lujan and Linda Serrato, both D-Santa Fe.

Yes, there are details to work out — the Fiscal Impact Report points out some schools/districts may already have cash balances to cover the products, the biggest expense is dispensers (and everyone who has tried to use one knows they are always empty or out-of-order), and distribution will require additional oversight from PED and schools. While the project at Academy used baskets in bathrooms, there’s valid concern tampons/pads will be stolen/thrown away.

But those are solvable problems. The FIR points out “nationally 20% of teenagers have had difficulty affording menstrual products . ... This rises to 25% for Hispanic teenagers.” It adds 10 states (California, Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, Maine, New York, Utah, Virginia, Nevada and Washington) require free products in schools and Alabama schools use a grant program to provide them. New York says attendance increased 2.5% after it provided free products.

Just-retired PED Secretary Kurt Steinhaus says “it’s the right thing to do. Plus, it improves student (achievement), and it just makes the kids feel more welcome and more willing to come to school.” He’s right, but let’s give the last word to a teen who understands what the program would mean:

Albuquerque High School junior Lorena Madrid Larrañaga says “as a low-income student at a Title I school, I have witnessed firsthand ... how difficult it can be not to have concrete access to period products. Wondering … where your next pad or tampon will come from should not be a student’s main concern at school, but it often is … and it can detract from education and even cause lower attendance rates.”