Posted on 12/10/2018 9:49:08 PM PST by csvset
NEWPORT NEWS
A group of students at Christopher Newport University is pushing school leaders to provide free menstrual products on campus.
The school's chapter of PERIOD, a national nonprofit that advocates for women on menstrual issues, has started a petition that calls on the university to provide what they argue are basic necessities and "end period poverty." It had 351 signatures as of Monday morning.
"Interrupted studies. Missed classes. Stunted education," reads the petition. "This is the reality for so many students who menstruate, simply because they lack access to readily available and affordable period products."
Rachel Applebach, a 20-year-old junior studying English literature and the chapter's distribution manager, said she's often approached by "other menstruators in a bind" on campus, saying, "Hey, this is really embarrassing but I need some kind of (period) product, can you help me?"
"That's just a really common experience here," Applebach said. "No one should have to experience that."
The push is part of a national campaign called United for Access from PERIOD and THINX, which manufactures "period-proof underwear," and extends to schools in places including Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.
The University of California, Davis, and the University of Texas at Austin have had victories so far, said Anna Zuccaro, a public relations consultant with the campaign.
There have been "more public spaces (recently) to discuss things like menstrual health," Zuccaro said. "Organizations like PERIOD have filled that space. This (topic) shouldn't be stigmatized, shouldn't be taboo when it happens to more than half the population."
Momentum has grown in recent years pushing public officials to nix obstacles to women getting menstrual products, including efforts to exclude the items from state taxes. Such a bill failed in Virginia at the most recent General Assembly session, but legislators did vote to require that jails and prisons provide products for inmates at no cost.
In an emailed statement, Christopher Newport spokesman Jim Hanchett said the issue "hasn't previously surfaced" on campus.
"Christopher Newport University welcomes a conversation about this with our students and student organizations and we welcome their ideas about innovative, effective strategies for meeting this need," he said in the email.
It's unclear how much it would cost to provide the products at CNU, a public university with 5,000 students.
Applebach said the PERIOD chapter wants the products placed in women's bathrooms at the library and in the first floor of academic buildings where classes are held, to start. Eventually she'd like to see the school put them in all women's bathrooms. They're hoping to meet with campus clubs, sororities, student leadership and the dean of students to broach the issue.
The organization is also working with the menstrual product company Aunt Flow to price-match whatever products the university would choose, Applebach said, to ensure those offered are quality and sustainable.
"I know as students, we're pretty much always crunched for money — thank you, tuition," she said. "That goes further into girls getting stuck with no period products onsite."
The petition notes every school bathroom provides toilet paper and soap "as basic necessities for natural bodily functions."
"People should start considering menstrual products as a basic necessity," Applebach said. "No student deserves to feel embarrassed about or caught off guard about" this.
Will they demonstrate en masse in the quad with a “Bleed In”?
In the Soviet Union in the era of Yuri Gagarin’s flight and on to the breakup of the USSR, women, even Communist Party members, did not have any specific feminine hygiene products. Rags were used. Prima ballerinas and top athletes may have been exceptions in Moscow and Leningrad but elsewhere those products were not widely distributed. And of course there were shortages in medicine and basic food commodities so feminine hygiene was a secondary concern.
We do indeed sir. I don’t know how they can be educated, but I am pretty sure it will be next to impossible.
Why don’t these “students” chip in and pay for it?
Oh, that’s right, they don’t pay for anything, they just demand stuff.
Gubmint pays for everything?
Kewl!
I wanna free mansion and free food and a free new Corvette and a free new SUV and free gas money and free insurance and everything else I want free.
Oh and lots and lots of free cash! And a free debit card! And a free credit card that I never have to pay!
Woohoo!!
If these young women were taking advantage of their Obamacare provided hormonal birth control it wouldn't cost them anything.
Sorry, just realized that this list would never end.
Regards,
Or was it her birth control she couldn't afford without health insurance?
Or some such nonsense.
You don’t miss class because you can’t afford pads.
You miss class because you have severe cramps.
The “basic neccessity” would be a pouch of reindeer moss.
Or better than reindeer moss, the Usnea species of lichen commonly found on trees... naturally antibacterial and good to treat all kinds of infections. And FREE...
Calling Mr. T, Calling Mr. T, come in please. Mr. T are you receiving? Over.
Calling Mr. T, Calling Mr. T, come in please. Mr. T are you receiving? Over.
Calling Mr. T, Calling Mr. T, come in please. Mr. T are you receiving? Over.
Calling Mr. T, Calling Mr. T, come in please. Mr. T are you receiving? Over.
Calling Mr. T, Calling Mr. T, come in please. Mr. T are you receiving? Over.
You'd think this is more a high school crisis.
How about free surgery to permanently solve that problem while keeping these idiots from reproducing themselves?
“We are so screwed.... “
That amply sums it up.
I suppose they will have to put them in all the bathrooms for the men who menstruate
So these "poor" people are privileged first world snowflakes demanding more freebies from the rest of us. But for a small fee, I can teach them how to tie palm fronds.
Yes, I meant to do that.
Why don’t they ‘self-identify’ as males during ‘that time of the month’ and the problem will go away!
Temporary Trannies!
(Can Logic & Biology really override emotional slogans? Not in today’s MSM/PC/Hollywood universe!)
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