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by Holly Sullivan, Community News Service
Schools would be required to stock menstrual products in all female and gender-neutral bathrooms used by students 8 years old and up through a House bill pitched earlier this month.
Rep. Brian Minier, D-South Burlington, proposed H.699 during a Jan. 12 House Committee on Education meeting.
Vermont law says public schools and approved independent schools must provide free menstrual products in the majority of female and gender-neutral bathrooms, leaving the choice of which bathrooms and period product brands up to individual schools.
Minier’s bill would amend that language to include all such bathrooms, not just a majority.
“It still leaves brands to use up to the school district to decide,” said legislative counsel Beth St. James in committee Jan. 12. If approved, the amendment would take effect July 1.
Though Minier presented the bill, he said he did not devise it on his own. Minier said in an interview that the amendment was proposed to him by a female student from Rice High School. She had expressed her concern that the bill’s language was limiting and could disrupt a student’s day. Minier agreed with her sentiment.
“This (amendment) seemed like a slam dunk, and why isn’t it in place already?” Minier told Community News Service. “What does it hurt to do this? What if you’re a student who, for the first time, is getting a period, and you forgot something?”
Before the committee meeting Jan. 12, Minier consulted with South Burlington School District Superintendent Violet Nichols to confirm the word “majority” in the existing statute was not meant to protect schools with limited budgets.
According to Minier, Nichols said providing free menstrual products in every bathroom would not cause a legitimate economic concern. “She said it should cost next to nothing,” Minier told CNS. “You don’t even have to use dispensers. You can use little baskets like they do at UVM, so there shouldn’t be an increase in cost to the people.”
Vermont Principals’ Association Executive Director Jay Nichols told legislators Jan. 12 that the existing law was worded to prevent vandalism.
Jay Nichols explained that unsupervised children during after-school programs may play with the products, throw them away or use them as a vessel to clog the schools’ toilets, resulting in thousands of dollars’ worth of plumbing damage. The word “majority” in the existing law gives schools the option to refrain from putting menstrual products in bathrooms prone to getting trashed.
“(Schools) would find out a day or two later that their plumbing was no longer working,” he told committee members. “That’s the reason why I think the language was ‘majority.’”
Minier told CNS he understands that argument but believes students’ health should be prioritized.
“There was a social media challenge a couple of years ago where the idea was to rip soap dispensers off of walls, but (schools’) response was not to take soap out of bathrooms, right?” he said. “It’s too bad that there’s this problem, but you don’t take away something that a student needs.”
The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.
