Badin has recently installed a feminine product machine in the girl’s bathroom in the main building. Pads and tampons will be available in the machine, costing a quarter for one.

“The school is having to purchase the feminine products for the girls to have on hand here in the nurse's office,” school nurse, Melanie Schmitt, said. “It’s something the girls should be responsible and preparing and carrying their own.”

“I think that they should be free,” junior June Meehan said. “The fact that students have to pay over $10,000 yet can’t even get 1 or 2 pads for free when they start their period at school is confusing. The school should have money as it is.”

Previously, there were four sizes of pad and two sizes of tampons available in the nurse’s office, but now there will only be one size of each

“I am more likely to be carrying a pad or tampon than a quarter,” sophomore Natalie Wurzelbacher said. “If it was an emergency and I really needed one I wouldn’t have a quarter and I would probably just go to my friends to ask for something.”

Alyson Manfreda, publications and freshman English teacher, was the one who suggested having the machine.

“I think that feminine products are something that should be accessible to everyone and as a teacher who has always tried to keep products in her desk and available to students, I know how common it is,” Manfreda said. “But, I don’t have every single female student and it’s not something we can expect only the female staff to carry the weight of that cost, so that’s why I suggested having something in the bathroom.”

It was presented to have a free dispenser, but there was concern “that they wouldn’t take just one that they needed, they might take two or three, they might need one later today or this evening after sports,” Schmitt said.

“I believe that we shouldn’t have to pay for tampons and pads because it’s a basic need,” sophomore Elsie Hamersky said.