An action group composed of teachers and students walked out of the Office of the Interim Replacement Acting Temporary Vice Principal’s office today after failing to come to an agreement on their demand that all sanitary products should be offered free of charge in Public School Zero bathrooms. The teachers explained how often they purchased sanitary products for their students, who would otherwise not be able to attend school because they could not afford to buy tampons or pads. Noting that this is a national issue, the group cited a survey of teachers who use DonorsChoose.org to make funding requests showing that “84% in the highest poverty schools have purchased essentials such as hygiene products for their students. Of those, 63% report spending more than $100 per year on these items”.
The Interim Replacement Acting Temporary Vice Principal quoted Maine State Senator Richard Pickett’s argument that a bill making sanitary products free in prisons would make jails into “country clubs” and said it was not the job of the school district to provide “luxury items” to students and teachers. When this bill became law, guaranteeing period products in jails, PSZ students, who have often compared their school to a jail, said that Public School Zero was now officially less period-friendly than a state prison.
The Interim Replacement Acting Temporary Vice Principal expressed the often-shared (though incorrect) view that it is possible to “hold in” period blood as needed and that sanitary products were therefore not necessary. After storming out of the office, the protest group undertook the guerrilla action of removing all the toilet paper from the men’s bathrooms on campus. One male student, with a long history of disputes with the Interim Replacement Acting Temporary Vice Principal, managed to sneak into the Vice Principal’s private “executive” bathroom and not only stole the toilet paper but replaced it with tampons.