UW Students Push For Free Tampons In Local Schools

SEATTLE, WA - Along with notebooks, eyeglasses, and calculators, menstrual hygiene products like tampons and pads are essential for middle and high school students. But some students don't always have ready access to them for a variety of reasons - cost, stigma, or embarrassment.

A group of students at the University of Washington is trying to help fix that problem.

Period, a student group at UW, has started a petition to ask Seattle Schools to offer free tampons and pads in bathrooms throughout the district. The effort is part of a larger movement to make these products cheaper (if not totally free) and easily available.

Alexis Little, 20, started UW's Period group this year and has been working on this issue on-campus. The group has gotten restrooms on campus stocked with free menstrual products.

"Now we're trying to get products to those in need in the larger Seattle community," she said.

The goal is modest. They want 30 signatures for the petition, which they can then take to the Seattle Schools Board of Directors to show people care about the issue. The local campaign is part of a larger push in cities around the U.S. The company THINX, which makes leak-proof womens underwear, is helping the UW students with the effort.

Some schools already offer menstrual products to students. But, Little says, the key is to have those products free in the restroom. Not everyone is comfortable walking to the bathroom holding a tampon or asking the school nurse.

"From personal experience, if you're in the middle of class having to rattle in your backpack, everyone knows what's going on. It's a terrible thing to feel like your classmates are judging you for something that's so natural and normal," Little said.

(Patch reached out to Seattle schools for comment but have not heard back. We'll update this story if we do.)

On the national level, some state and governments are looking to eliminate taxes on menstrual products. Voters in Nevada on Tuesday eliminated taxes on those products. States like Florida, Massachusetts, and Illinois don't tax menstrual products.

Seattle City Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda in late October raised the possibility of exempting menstrual products from the city's portion of the sales tax.

"It's not a luxury item, it's a basic health need," Little said.

Image courtesy Alexis Little