Schools Providing Sanitary Products

[Sansastark45]

Don't get me wrong periods aren't nice at the best of time but don't our schools have enough on their plates without now having to take on this??

Am i being unreasonable to think that if you have a daughter you should be having the conversation with her?? Basic own brand sanitary products are cheap enough to buy - our schools shouldn't be left to deal with this too!

I was one of those kids who parent rarely afford sanitary products.

I had to use the 29p ones (remember the really bulky awful things) and when they ran out I used to wrap toilet tissue around my knickers. It was awful and I wish these period essentials were at my school when I was young. My mother genuinely struggled to afford them (single parent, scoliosis, mental health problems)

I was 11 😩

As for don’t have kids you can’t afford.
My mum just had me, because of that very reason.
She also couldn’t work as her health problems deteriorated, my father was an abusive man so it was just me and her .
I struggle to comprehend people saying ‘but period products are so cheap, or ‘borrow from a fiend or family member’ .
It’s not always possible !

15% think it shouldn’t be free, how disappointing that some women can be this detached from reality, unaware of poverty, neglect, abuse etc that many kids live with

Many see this as a sticking plaster measure. It fixes the immediate issue but won’t resolve anything in the child’s life. Surely it’s better to use funds to tackle the root cause for the child instead?

It really annoys me when people say "don't have kids you can't afford" and don't realise that it's closing the stable door after the horse has already bolted. Children don't just wink out of existence because the money has dried up, they're here and they need schemes like this because they didn't ask to be born so why should they be punished for it?

The scheme is aimed at helping girls to stay in school so they can get an education, so they can have the opportunity to achieve the best possible start to adulthood. For some of those girls (the ones who aren't just caught short one day but for whom no sanpro is an ongoing problem) this education is what will give them the chance to escape the poverty trap, the abusive parent(s), the neglect, the parent(s) who simply don't notice they have young woman rather than a little girl, etc. so that they never again have to be that ashamed 12yo with a slowly disintegrating wodge of toilet roll in their knickers.

I am 100% in favour of schemes that pull people up instead of shoving them down.

Surely it’s better to use funds to tackle the root cause for the child instead?

Any while they're trying to tackle the root cause young girls will be left to bleed everywhere.

How could they fix the problem of the children like me and many others on the thread who had middle class parents who had money but were just shit with periods and didn't provide pads?

Many see this as a sticking plaster measure. It fixes the immediate issue but won’t resolve anything in the child’s life. Surely it’s better to use funds to tackle the root cause for the child instead?

• removal of the punitive benefit cap which pushed so many already struggling families into poverty
• reopening of surestart centres which supported and educated parents
• reinstated budget for school nurses who used to deal with these problems
• restatement of early intervention services to provide education and support to parents and teens (such as those provided by school nursing team, surestart, and community outreach services)
• more robust employment rights particularly for those in low paid work and/or on zero hour contracts which are often used as a 'stick' by overzealous managers

The main thing that will help resolve the issue for girls in period poverty is education. The scheme helps keep them in school so they can get this education.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss
Give your head fuckin wobble!
So do you have a magical overnight solution to lift these girls out of poverty/abuse/neglect? I doubt it, in the meantime read back on some pp accounts of their shame as a child and ask yourself if those in those circumstances deserve some self respect.

Don’t see how it is any more hassle for the school than providing toilet paper tbh. A small gesture that will make the lives of many girls so much easier. OP you must really live in a bubble.

Many see this as a sticking plaster measure. It fixes the immediate issue but won’t resolve anything in the child’s life. Surely it’s better to use funds to tackle the root cause for the child instead?

Well anyone with a magic wand feel free to wave it and make child abuse and neglect (in all levels of income) benefit cock ups, zero hours contracts, benefit sanctions for ridiculous reasons, poverty in all shapes and situations disappear and be replaced by all parents being loving and nurturing, a proper living wage for all and jobs available for all with available childcare (where childcare providers aren't being ripped off by local councils and losing money doing 'free hours' ) overnight?
Easy peasy no?
Hmmm, while you are working on that lets leave girls to bleed all over and be humiliated and feel horrendous because of the want of some free San pro.

Result!

I could get hold of emergency sanpro when I was at senior school and that was in 1971! AFAIAA schools have had these available simply because as other posters have said girls can come on at all times. Yes, we had to ask for them, but even at 11 we were capable of doing that - embarrassing, yes, but part of life...

Don't have kids you can't afford

Oh my god, shut the fuck up with that crap.

People's circumstances can change. Lucky you if it never happened to you and you have been able to easily afford and budget for every single expense that came your way.

My parents just didn't bother getting an San pro products for me, I don't really know why but they were generally quite physically neglectful.
I fully support this, dc having to use toilet paper or old socks and praying it didn't leak is grim.

Also it's fine to ask for emergency San pro but you cannot do that for a week every month.
By the time I was 12 I knew not to draw attention to parental neglect.

It's not just for emergencies. It's for the kids who know there isn't a spare quid or two available even if they asked for it.
Spare underwear and tights too.
Of course YABU
Some students don't even have full uniform or even a pen.
Money needs to be spent on the families.
Sure start up to teen years is much needed.
This is just like a sticking plaster after an injury. We need to be preventing these situations.

Anyone see Liz Kershaw's horrendous tweet, and the hideous male tweets that she has sparked?

twitter.com/lizkershawdj/status/1219321284405944320?s=21

Liz Kershaw is an idiot. Who knew?

I saw the tweets and the comments. Fucking disgusting, I noticed it was always the mother’s fault. And also that her grandmother was boiling up her mums rags.which raises two issues (without getting into the rags not being adequate)

1. the fuel to do this
2. the parent willing and capable to do this.

Having worked in a high school in a very rural county, this is a very real problem.
It's not just the 60p or so which needs to be found- it's the £3-4 for the bus fare to the shop to buy the items.

I fully support this. My parents weren’t poor but periods were not to be discussed and I was occasionally bought a pack of massive nappy-like pads. Not nearly often enough, unfortunately, and I had to resort to toilet roll, with the inevitable leakage every few hours. I would never wish anything like that indignity on any young girl; it’s scarring.

I think it is good for the school to have a spare stash. But if they are visible to the children with out having to be asked for I think there will be a lot of waste. (As has been reported before by people who work in schools.) If you have to ask for them which is what a lot of schools do then a lot of girls simply won,t. I do think it is yet another thing expected of schools and we nee to address poverty/ education/ bodily awareness with in the home environment. And yes you can get pads for around £1.00. But I know not everyone will have that £1.00.SAying schools should provide tights and pants, then gets a bit ridiculouse. Who is paying for it?. (We now have to pay for school books which in myday the school would have provided I rather they provied them tbh.)

Resuable really like what amenstruation cup honestly have you ever tried using one imagine using at the age of 12 no thx. Im all for it and no girl should be missing out on school because of her period .

TILL this day I find it ridiculous that SANITERY TOWELS are seen as non essential and are taxed. This is what we should be talking about

the cheapy cheap sanitary towels are bloody useless.

And yet many schools change the uniform every five minutes which costs parents.

Liz Kershaw's tweet is disgraceful. Totally ignorant.

I bet she thinks that those of us with problem periods are making it up and letting the sisterhood down.

Idiot!!

I lived in poverty as a teenager. We had no money for anything because my mother's boyfriend controlled his and her benefits and he would spend it all down the pub rather than let us buy essentials. We had a microwave but no cooker or washing machine. We also lived in a house with no boiler or heating so it was freezing in the winter. It had to walk 4 miles a day to school (2 miles each way) because there was no money for the bus. If the school hadn't provided me with clean underwear and sanitary pads then that would have been yet another thing I would have had to gone without.. This was less than 15 years ago but I can't believe it's still continuing and being allowed to happen What has the world come too?!