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Vol. 8
No. 4
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER - LANARK, NORTH LEEDS & GRENVILLE
APRIL 2021
UCDSB to provide feminine hygiene product dispensers
A Period Policy: Smiths Falls - Shannon McLellan editorial@pdgmedia.ca
It’s time to rethink menstrual education in schools and destigmatize periods, encourage young women to seek help, and place access to period products for all on the agenda; which in part is what occurred during the March 24 board meeting at the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB). During the March 24 board meeting, student trustees Tain Hughes and Jordan Evans, through trustee Corina Parisien, put forth a motion for UCDSB trustees to refer the issue of accessibility of menstrual hygiene products in UCDSB schools to the policy committee for consideration and report back to the board by the April 28 meeting. Following two motions at the meeting, the UCDSB is set to get a policy mandating the free supply of feminine hygiene products in all schools now and into the future, as well as immediate installation of dispensers in female washrooms in all UCDSB schools. Gender neutral washrooms are to be included in the policy to include dispensers as well. In an interview with student trustee Tain Hughes, Hughes said she didn’t realize that there was an accessibility issue for period products until she and
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RIGHT: Hughes, Student Trustee and Chair of Student Senate Meetings. Photo credit: Shannon McLellan. LEFT: This photo was taken on October 21st by my mother. It was “wear skirts against toxic masculinity” day across Canada and she had gifted it to me after I had posted about it on social media: I had noticed many of the boys in my school who had worn skirts against toxic masculinity were the ones who used homophobic slurs, objectified/ sexualized female students, and perpetuated rape culture. Women's bodies are often talked about as though they belong to men, as if men have the right to comment on them, touch them, or use them as a political playground. “Teach girls to be somebodies instead of somebody’s” responds to the fact that women are taught from a young age that we matter if we belong to someone or something. Often when a woman is a victim of a violent, sexual, or abusive crime we discuss it with sentences like “she was somebody’s wife” or “she was a mother”; as if her relationships or status in this world should have any impact on the crime itself. Women deserve to be respected as they are, not because of relational or social status, but rather because we are people. Women are somebodies. - Hughes. Photo submitted.
fellow student trustee Jordan Evans began to investigate. Following further discussion with Hughes, it was clear that even though most schools already offer free feminine hygiene products, they are not easily accessible and many require the student in need to approach the main office or guidance office to make the request. Most students are too ashamed or shy to ask for the product they need. Quantity is not the issue, accessibility is. Hughes commented, “this isn’t just a motion for a policy to be set in place
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like other rules and regulations in the board, it’s an issue of freedom rights and necessity”. Hughes stated that she’s happy and proud of the board for being so progressive. As a society we need to be transformational going forward. The path to provide free feminine hygiene products in school restrooms is lighting up across the province. A recent open letter was put out by a group including all four of Ontario’s main teachers’ unions urging the provincial government to offer free menstrual products in all
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publicly funded schools. The group was led by the Toronto Youth Cabinet, who made the call in an open letter to Education Minister Stephen Lecce in March. There are a multitude of social and cultural reasons why menstrual products may not be easily accessible, many of which are linked with the stifling stigma that persists around menstruation. Let’s begin a broader discussion about women’s health and menstruation. Together, we can end period poverty.
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