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McClatchy to Receive Free Menstrual Products

Free menstrual products could soon be coming to school bathrooms all throughout the state of California after Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 10 in October.  As of January 1, the law requires free pads and tampons to be provided in middle and high schools where at least 40% of students are at or below the federal poverty line.

 

McClatchy High is one of the schools that qualifies. Its status as a Title I school means that at least 40% of the population is at or under the poverty line. In this case, 40.1% of students receive free or reduced lunch.

 

“We are working with the facilities department, which is currently in the process of getting everything up-to-date with the district,” says Principal Peter Lambert.

 

The law requires that at least half of the bathrooms at McClatchy be stocked with free menstrual products.

 

Says senior and president of McClatchy’s Feminist-Coalition, Anna Murray, having free tampons “would mean students don’t have to miss school or make their own, mostly ineffective, materials … it would also show that McClatchy values its students’ health and well-being to deal with something that half of the school must go through.”

 

Lambert is aware of a “timeline” to implement the policy, though he gave no specific date on when it would go into effect at the school. The district “has to bring every school up-to-date,” he explained, adding, “they are working currently to do this.

 

In the meanwhile, there are free menstrual products available for use in the Student Support Center. Iyuanna Pease, who worked in the center for a number of years, says the menstrual products offered there are taken advantage of by students as often as  “one or two times a day”.

 

Putting products in bathrooms in addition to the Student Support Center would “increase convenience for students,” says Murray.

 

This law is not the first of its kind — Illinois has passed a law similar to this in which free menstrual products were made available to all schools grades 6 through 12. A similar project also took place in New York City, where products were made free in 25 middle and high schools.