“I have struggled with the taboo specifically, the stigmatization of menstruation throughout my entire life,” says GEM Club President Stephanie Snyder.
Growing up, Steph always felt ashamed of her period. She grew up with no one ever talking about periods, or even mentioning the word “Period.” As Steph explained, “I was the one to whisper the word tampon and to hide it when in the bathroom, you know you try to unwrap it quietly and all that.” She was truly ashamed and scared to talk about or let anyone know what was going on inside of her.
This is the reason Steph headed the battle to get Period Pads in the bathrooms at BHS:
“I just wanted to women to feel the freedom I felt when I researched, when I educated myself and found out, not only is the period a natural thing, but it’s an incredibly laudable thing.”
As of January 8th of this year, twenty-five states have passed legislation to get free period products in their school bathrooms. As of this date, Massachusetts is not one of these states and does not require funding for period products to be in the bathrooms; therefore, schools like BHS are not required to have period products in them.
According to GEM Vice President Joella Amatya, “Brookline is the first Massachusetts town who has ever implemented period products within their government buildings,” and recently Braintree is making a similar change.
The change was only made possible by the folks who were brave enough to step up and face the challenge of getting funding for period products. The GEM Club President and Vice President stepped up to the challenge, with the assistance of their advisors Ms. Heller, the French and Spanish teacher, and Ms. Pierce, the math teacher.
The group had to go through extensive research and then present their data to multiple boards.
“The very first step was to reach out to a company called Pads on a Roll.” According to Steph, Pads on a Roll is a company that sells and distributes “a toilet paper roll but instead of a square of toilet paper, you’ll have a menstrual product, a pad.” After they reached out, Joella began to survey the school:
“I set up a survey that I sent out to different clubs, like you know Theater Guild, Debate Club, many diverse perspectives on the single issue of accessibility of menstrual products.”
Once the President-Vice President duo had all the data and statistics, they were ready to present their plea to the boards.
Steph says that they made “a proposal which Joella, Ms. Pierce, Ms. Heller and [her] all collaborated to do.” This proposal was then taken to “Dr. Scully and Mr. Riordan for them to confirm it,” after they went to “a subcommittee of the town school committee to get them to confirm it.”
Joella expressed her deepest gratitude after the school leaders approved the proposal. “They approved! Woo!” as she expressed.
Joella and Steph will now discuss their plans with “the janitorial staff and survey the bathrooms we are going to put the pads in.” The group’s hope is to get the pads in the bathrooms “near Ms. Heller and near Ms. Pierce” because the four “are going to be the ones checking in and taking the data for the first couple months with the help of janitorial staff as well, so [they] are hoping to get it near their rooms for convenience.”
A confirmation of which bathrooms will be used is soon to come.
For the group, getting pads in the bathroom is a huge accomplishment. The reason they fought for this was because they wanted to make a contribution to help stop menstrual inequity.
The problem “is not a new thing, it’s been hidden, like a tampon slipped up a sleeve, it has been hidden because people are scared to talk about it” and for this “menstrual inequity continues to plague our society,” Steph stated.
Ms. Heller said that “All other bathroom hygiene products are included in any bathroom you may visit anywhere you go in society (toilet paper, soap, paper towels, etc.) except for products for menstruation.” Although it might not be the case at all public places, it is the situation at many, and that is what they find to be the issue.
Similarly, Joella poses the question: “you don’t carry around soap or toilet paper whenever you use the bathroom, so why do you need to carry around period products?”
The group just wants to make women at Braintree High feel more comfortable embracing their femininity and their periods. By getting these pads in the bathrooms, GEM is allowing women to feel more recognized by not making women carry around something so necessary to women.
Pads in the bathroom are only the beginning for what the GEM Club hopes to accomplish to help the women of our society; there is much more in store for Steph, Joella, and the GEM Club. Ms Heller has learned a lot about Steph and Joella, and is optimistic for what the future holds for the club:
“Both of them have shown me they are excellent leaders and working with them makes me feel good about who the leaders of tomorrow will be. They get to graduate here leaving behind a legacy of acceptance and inclusion for all students and the potential for their groundwork to last beyond this year and go beyond just BHS is inspiring.”
