The Real Story Behind Free Tampons and Pads in Public Schools

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 10, which makes tampons free in California's Low- Income Districts.

Of all the school topics discussed in local Facebook pages, this is one topic that received a lot of comments and discussion, so I felt compelled to write an article that shines a light on how utterly ridicules this Governor and our legislature have become. And, how unfair these type of laws are to every student in the State and what a waste of resources it is for those districts that are forced to comply.

1) Currently, every school district in the State of California provides free feminine hygiene products to every student; irrespective of their individual wealth, race or ethnicity. The student simply has to walk to the nurses office and ask for a FREE tampon or pad.

2) The equal protection clause requires that all laws be applied to all people equally. That right is protected under the Federal Constitution. The State of California cannot treat students differently based on their individual wealth, race or ethnicity. So every district must provide FREE tampons and pads to every student, or to no student. That is the law.

3) The law is irrational because it fails to recognize that in California there is no longer a men's restroom or a women's restroom- every student can use every restroom on the campus. The law requires 50% of a schools restrooms to be stocked with free tampons and pads. How is a student (in an emergency situation) suppose to know which restrooms are stocked with the free product and which are not? To be rational- the law should require every restroom on campus to be stocked with product.

4) Lets look at the cost to implement this law which has no funding attached to it. This is another expense that local school districts will have to fund out of existing funding.

5) Because the law only requires the Low - Income Districts to provide this service to poor people, it is unfair to the poor students in Districts who are not required to comply. That discriminates against the Poor in Districts like CUSD. Don't our poor students deserve the same benefits as the poor students in Low-Income Districts?

This law is unfair!

If CUSD wanted to provide FREE tampons to students what would it cost?

To get a ball park on the cost to provide Free tampons and pads to every CUSD student; irrespective of their wealth, race or ethnicity it would cost the District $405,000.00 per year:

CUSD has 50,000 students (ball park).
According to the Huffington post women use, on average 20 tampons per cycle. See HuffPost: Here' how much a Women's Period will Cost Her Over a Lifetime
9 months of school = 180 tampons per female student per school year.
25,000 students (1/2 the students) X 180 tampons = 4.5 million tampons per year
4.5 million tampons at a cost of $ .09 cents = $405,000.00 per year

Do we really need to spend 1/2 million every year on tampons? That money would pay for 1/2 the cost of Art and Music for every 1-3 grader in CUSD.

Then there is the cost of the machines to dispense the FREE tampons:

According to CDE schools should have 1 toilet for every 40 students. Lets assume that there are four toilets per restroom - so 160 students per restroom.

50,000 students in CUSD / 160 students per restroom = 312 restrooms in CUSD (ball park)

312 restrooms X $300 a dispenser. $93,600.00 (one time cost)

Why should our tax money pay for FREE tampons for poor students in other districts, when our poor students will not get the same benefit?

This is really about redistributing wealth, and that does not belong in our public education system.

Lets get back to providing students with instruction in core educational subjects, and stop mandating that underfunded districts pay money to provide students with FREE tampons and pads which are already available in the nurses office.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/fa/sf/toiletrequire.asp