Black and Latina Teens Address Menstrual Equity in Their Schools
Reporter Annabel Rocha discusses how Black and Latine students in Chicago are resisting period shame and period poverty in their schools. Illinois state policy says that public schools should have products in all bathrooms. The Chicago Public Schools’ policy states that products must be free and available in at least one school bathroom. However, schools don’t always follow these policies.
Johnnaya Brooks’ school stocks period products in only one bathroom, and the supply is always empty. At Shartrell Bush’s school, students must go to the nurse’s office for period products, and there are no trash cans in the bathrooms to dispose of them.
Both Brooks and Bush are students in the Bold Girls Society (BGS), an advocacy leadership program within Girls Inc. of Chicago. As leaders in the program, they are working to ensure that students have access to menstrual products and that students can use them freely and without shame.
Students Leslie Arrendondo and Anabelle Sanchez have similar goals. As the co-presidents of the PERIOD. chapter at their high school, the first in Chicago, they educate other students around period poverty. They also plan to provide free menstrual products. Arrendondo and Sanchez understand that their work is important because of the cultural stigma and shame around menstruation in the Hispanic community that develops out of machismo and marianismo.
The work of these students demonstrates a generational shift in how periods are perceived. Students are pushing back against a culture of shame, refusing to keep this natural bodily process in the dark.
I think this kind of falls into the public health category because it is a serious issue. If people don’t have what they need at the time, it’s definitely something that should be brought up and this is where the empowerment comes in to speak up because I know that is a very sensitive topic for many people and I think it’s moreseo finding your voice to speak up.
SOURCE: Reckon Media, Mass Live • AUTHOR: Annabel Rocha • LAST UPDATED: April 22, 2024
