7th graders make tampon cookies for principal after he refused to put tampons in the bathrooms

[ehrnst]

Tampons are an absolute necessity, especially for young girls who might start their period at school. Many people have argued that sanitary products should be provided by schools free of charge. This would especially help girls in poverty, who are often forced to miss school as a result of their period.

At one middle school, girls are attempting to have access to sanitary products in bathrooms at the school. When the principal was less than receptive to the idea, they came up with a pretty creative form of protest.

Link to tweet

https://megaphone.upworthy.com/p/tampon-cookies

[Tanuki]

1. Incredibly creative and clever form of protest! Well done, middle school girls!

You give me renewed hope for the future.

[iluvtennis]

20. + agree.

[lagomorph777]

2. Brava! Brava! Brava!

[usaf-vet]

3. This is going to be a story to watch. I'll bet we are going to hear more. I'll bet they win!

[cwydro]

4. We certainly didn't have them in any school I ever attended.

And it never would have occurred to us to ask for them.

We brought them with us from home in those silly little plastic cases, remember those?

They absolutely should be provided!

[csziggy]

21. In 7th grade I was not allowed to bring my own tampons to school

Sanitary pads were OK, but tampons might be too ~something~ to allow "young girls" to see or use. I absolutely hated pads - the ones available in the 1960s were bulky, not very absorbent, and a nuisance - plus you had to wear a belt to hold them in place since the stick on pads had not been invented.

I still brought in my own tampons even though I was dressed down a couple of times by teachers who saw them in my purse. It seems insane that a girl had to break rules to use the most effective product for her needs!

On the other hand, I did see teachers give girls pads if their periods began unexpectedly - and one case when she started for the first time the teacher had to provide them AND teach her the facts of life since no one had told her yet.

[woodsprite]

28. I remember those "belts". I can remember the old Kimberly-Clark "Very Personally Yours" kit.

It came with a belt, some starter pads with tabs, and the big "new" item at the time was stretchy lace and plastic panties with tabs build in. Oh, and the Disney video all the girls were made to watch down in the nurses office:

[csziggy]

31. I don't remember the kits and they never showed us the Disney film

In fact the only stuff we got in school was basic biology of being a woman. Nothing about what to use or how to deal with menstruation. Absolutely nothing about sex or birth control - other than don't have sex. What I learned about sex was from a book on breeding horses - Mom was shocked at how much I knew when she had the "talk" with me. The shock for me was about menstruation - horses really don't do that.

My first period was while my family was on a trip. Arkansas on a Sunday, so nothing was open. I remember the discussion between my Mom and my older sisters. None of them had anything other than tampons and Mom was reluctant to let me use them - but there really wasn't much choice.

Then when we got home, my next time was just after school began that year and I was forced to use pads. Until I went out and bought my own tampons and kept them in my purse.

[woodsprite]

32. OMG! I can remember

Being really embarrassed because my mom would go grocery shopping with my dad and bring back pads for me.

The first time I ever used a tampon was when I was about 45yo. We were at Hatteras and I wanted to swim. I guess I got a too absorbent variety, I thought I’d have to call my husband to get the pliers to extricate it. Was scared to death that if the string would break and I’d have to go find a dr. 😂

[csziggy]

33. My poor dad had to deal with four daughters

All of us getting through puberty with all the difficulties. And he had no prep - he had one brother and no other siblings, so he had nothing to give him any clue. Good thing Mom was a nurse and well informed!

I used tampons from early on since I rode horses constantly. Pads just didn't work well for that.

[LiberalFighter]

34. Okay -- I laughed at that. Sorry

[RobinA]

42. I Had That!

We had pad machines in our bathrooms. I think they cost a dime.

[3catwoman3]

41. Those damn pads were like...

...sitting on a horse.

The sense of liberation provided by tampons was huge.

[csziggy]

46. Well, tampons were the way to go if you were actually sitting on a horse!

As for the pads, they were shoving a bath towel in between your legs. About as absorbent and just about as big!

[woodsprite]

26. Delaware is trying to fix this is our state.

The only thing that jumped out to me about the article was that while I started at 10yo (4th grade), they're only proposing to cover from 6th through 12th. I was lucky, if I needed something, I could walk through the bus court to the middle school and go to their nurse. Other schools aren't set up next to each other like that. I called my rep to say that, while it may not happen a lot, they should add language to cover 4th and 5th as well. Actually, there is much research stating that girls are maturing earlier now, so that should be taken into consideration.

https://delawarestatenews.net/government/proposal-would-provide-free-tampons-pads-to-students/

And I in no way ever considered it a "privilege". I guess some may, but I always figured that's why one of it's nicknames is "the curse". My aunt used to say she "fell off the roof".

[ehrnst]

27. Yep - girls are having menarche at 9-10 years old now. (nt)

[bdamomma]

35. I had one of those

silly plastic cases. They should be provided in schools.

How many of us can remember how we had an accident and were sent home?

[CaptYossarian]

5. Is this a Christian school where they pray the period away?

[DinahMoeHum]

6. Tee hee! I love this remark. . .

Link to tweet

Maybe the girls should demonstrate that they are not taking advantage of free tampons by returning them to the principal when they are finished with them.

[JaneQPublic]

7. "Abuse the privilege"???

How does he figure they'd do that?
Have a few extra periods each month?
Change them 50 times a day?
Sell them on street?

What an idiot.

[TruckFump]

8. Exactly.

Nothing like "black market" tampons!

[JaneQPublic]

9. Ha! (nt)

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. Thank you for saying that!

[defacto7]

13. I can think of several ways to cover all the possible mischief

that could happen and still preserve privacy as well as keep them free to those who need them. It's not like some insurmountable obstacle. There should be no second thought about doing this.

[CTyankee]

16. What does "abuse the privilege" mean?

What is the "privilege"?

[JaneQPublic]

18. Exactly. Is it a "privilege" when HS boys get free condoms?

It's great that they do, but you never hear them referred to as a "privilege."

[SoCalNative]

24. He probably has seen

the movie "Carrie" too many times....

[central scrutinizer]

25. If you're out of ZigZags,

Tampon wrappers can be used to roll joints

[Midnight Writer]

30. So can Bible pages.

[bdamomma]

36. nt

[GulfCoast66]

39. I can't believe you would suggest something like that.

The ink, you know.

It might cause cancer!

[Midnight Writer]

45. Emergency only. My evil friends tell me it tastes pretty harsh.

[RobinA]

43. Well, That And

the “privilege”? Really?

[Grammy23]

11. I seem to remember at my high school (graduated 1966)

we were told by the gym teacher that we could get sanitary supplies from her, if necessary. I never needed to visit her office luckily because my parents were able afford what I needed. However, there were girls who had “surprises” and needed an emergency supply from the gym teacher. We were lucky to have someone who clearly understood the need and made sure no girl had to improvise or miss school. I think there was a tampon machine in the bathrooms, too.

[MineralMan]

12. When I was in high school (class of 1963) few girls used tampons.

There were pad dispensers in the girls' restrooms, though. Tampons, though, were sort of taboo. I mean, they were used, you know, "internally," so girls who used them were considered to be "non-virgins" by some ignorant men, who ran the school system, of course.

Such was the last gasp of such thinking. Maybe. I don't know. I learned all this from my high school girlfriend, whose mom supplied her with the tampons she used when menstruating. She was not shy about sharing such information with me. Actually, she was not shy about much of anything, which was one of the reasons I liked her so much.

Perhaps this MALE school principal is still of the school that classes tampon users as, you know, "sluts." Perhaps he got an object lesson from those cookies. I hope so.

[CTyankee]

17. Yeah, I remember those days. Tampons were suspect and might "de-virginize" a young girl...

such was the thinking

[MineralMan]

22. People were weird back then. At least, I thought so.

Just a year or two after I got out of high school, the birth control pill became easily available, and much of that nonsense began to go away. Yet another change caused by progress.

Guys weren't supposed to know anything about any of that stuff, either. I was lucky in having a sister just a year younger than I was and a girlfriend for three years who wouldn't have any such nonsense. Between the two of them, I got educated. Times were beginning to change.

[GulfCoast66]

40. Unfortunately you are incorrect with the last gasp comment.

That way of thinking is even more prevalent now in evangelical circles than it was when I was a child coming up in a Southern Baptist Church in the 70’s.

I am now a freethinker but the comments I hear from my evangelical relatives would have seemed crazy to them in the 70s.

My opinion: as more and more of society moves to a more rational way of thinking they have tripled down on their nuttiness. Tampons have always been a kind of taboo to evangelicals. They are just so hung up on anything they see as remotely sexual.

Now as a man I can’t relate but I know my wife never need tampons and pads worked fine. We’ve been together 33 years. But my sister did need tampons and used them early on and got some static in church for it. Unsurprisingly, she is no longer an evangelical and is a Democratic Party member. This was in the 80s.

The evangelicals are fucking crazy.

[flibbitygiblets]

14. Is this principal also worried that male students will "abuse" their TP privileges?

I'm guessing not.

Which brings up something most people don't talk about: Poor girls, who can't afford sanitary products (or whose parents are in denial that their little girls are growing up) often use TP as a makeshift sanitary product. Unless that school has no students who fit these categories (poor/parents don't provide sanitary products); I can pretty much guarantee this is happening already.

The result is higher than needed TP use, combined with a feeling of unworthiness conveyed onto the young women. Back in the 70's, no young women would even think to ask for these products (too embarrassing). I speak from personal experience.

[LuckyCharms]

15. The girl's bathrooms had tampon machines in my 6th grade

(elementary) school. I remember this specifically because kids being kids would make a huge deal about this.

Speaking as a man, why would providing tampons even become an issue? If they are needed, they are needed. It's a hygiene product. So is hand soap, paper towels, toilet paper, and warm water to wash your hands. Since those things are provided, why would someone have to bring their own tampons to school when they don't have to bring these other items? Put the goddamn tampons in your school, Mr. Principal. Worry about the stuff you should be worrying about, not this.

Every thing is so fucked up these days.

[3catwoman3]

19. I admire their spirit and assertiveness.

The guy probably thinks nothing but a penis should be put “up there.’

[MineralMan]

23. Today's middle-school girls aren't having any of that crap.

Good for them, I say!

[bdamomma]

37. Rather crass

thing to say but yes I believe that he thinks that. Crap we girls/women will rise.

[Lars39]

38. "Abuse the privilege" ...

He probably thinks a tampon is pleasurable.

[RobinA]

44. No, No, No

Tampons take away your virginity, doncha know.

[TheBlackAdder]

29. White iced and separately red iced lady fingers would work too. Only the principal gets the red ones