Every student’s nightmare is getting their period when they least expect it. And while menstruators try to keep track of when their red wave is going to hit, sometimes plans change, and the period comes with no warning, leaving many here at RRHS to have to scramble for proper personal hygiene products. 

And while some students might have a pad in hand or a friend of theirs has a tampon, there’s occasionally a time when they have no option but to use the free hygiene products provided by the school. 

Unfortunately for students, these products were inadequate as they were found to have countless issues including but not limited to size issues, mobility issues, and more. 

Let’s start with the pads. 

The ones provided by the school are the Maxithins regular protection pads, which, according to their box packaging, are supposed to have channels to absorb liquid, a backing that provides protection from leaking, and have an adhesive strip that secures the pad in place. 

Unfortunately, these pads aren’t as helpful as they claim. While the adhesive strip is useful in sticking the pad in undergarments, its lack of wings, which are two adhesive pieces that give extra protection from movement, makes the pad easy to move when doing basic activities such as running, walking, and sometimes even sitting.

Junior Dayanna Anton is a pad user who finds that this product does not meet the expectations it claims. “Whenever I’m in [class] and I shift in my seat, [the pad] moves,” Anton said, “So then I’m usually worried that if I move the wrong way, I’ll bleed out [onto the seat].”

Another issue with these pads is the fact that RRHS does not provide specific sizes of pads, but instead only provides one size. Sophomore Natalia Wallis finds that the “one size fits all” pads do not fit all. “There are girls with different flows and sizes, which call for a variation of pads needed at the school,” she said. 

But what about the tampons? 

Along with the Maxithins pads RRHS also offers the Tampax regular absorbency tampons, which offer regular protection from a normal flow. A normal flow, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is between “two to three tablespoons of blood each discharge.” 

However, the main issue with these tampons is its more environmentally friendly cardboard applicators, which are found to be less comfortable than the other option that other tampons in the market have, which is made of plastic. Wallis also found another issue with these applicators. “I think that cardboard is pretty bad considering that it’s going into an environment with liquid,” Wallis said. 

And to make the experience more uncomfortable, the applicators don’t have rounded tips which according to August, a period company known for spreading awareness about menstruation issues and facts, found that the “smooth, rounder tip makes easy insertion.” By not having a rounded tip it makes it so that the tampon is harder and much more uncomfortable to be inserted into the body, making this specific type of tampon not beginner-friendly. 

Period Poverty and The Restocking Issue at RRHS

So both of the products are uncomfortable but a positive is that they are free of charge. Along with that students can always bring their own from home. However, apart from the fact students do forget their products, some students here at RRHS don’t have personal hygiene products at home to bring. They instead have to depend on their school. And that’s an issue called period poverty.

Period poverty is when a person is struggling or is unable to buy period products for themselves leaving them to have to choose alternatives such as handmade pads or for their school to provide them free products. According to Period.Org one in four students struggle through this issue. And so, many menstruators at RRHS have to grab the uncomfortable pads and tampons, wasting class time because of a final issue with these hygiene products,  that they’re rarely stocked. 

Anton herself has had multiple experiences of her not being able to find the dispensers stocked leading to her having to go to multiple bathrooms, frantically ask her friends, and even have to go to the nurses office, making her waste precious time out of her day. “I’ve never had a dispenser work for me,” she said, “sometimes I go to a bathroom and the only thing left are tampons at most, which I don’t use.”

Junior Anna Gonzalez also had similar issues to Anton as she herself had to go to multiple bathrooms to find supplies. “I think it’s really stupid because I have to go to the all gender bathrooms, the regular bathrooms, and then the nurse to find a pad,” Gonzales said. “The school used to restock the vending machines multiple times, why can’t they with our products? ”

With RRHS having an enrollment number of more than 1,500 people with about half being female, it should be a priority for the administration to find a way to get better period products so that students don’t have the issue of having to miss crucial class time to find a pad or tampon. 

So what could be a solution? Apart from the very simple fact that pads and tampons should be restocked multiple times a day by the custodial staff, another solution would be to apply to an organization that provides these personal hygiene products to schools such as Alliance for Period’s Allied Programs. Their goal is to distribute personal hygiene products to local communities. It’s also easy to apply through their website. 

By doing these actions and focusing on making the female student body comfortable, there wouldn’t be another girl running bathroom to bathroom to find basic period necessities.