My Senior Capstone Service
For my service portion of my capstone project I want to focus on the menstruation products in the bathrooms, the two fundraisers we have had, the multiple product drives, and the women of the month that are posted in the commons. Firstly I want to talk about the menstruation products that have been supplied in the bathrooms for the past two years. When Women’s Initiative Club first started our main goal was to empower women and to also supply free menstruation products in all of the bathrooms. This is important to me, because I know the feeling of not having any menstruation products and having to use whatever you could find, or even having one of your parents call you off of school. This is important to me, because I have gone through the trouble of not having access before. This is why the Women's Initiative Club took this problem into our hands, and decided that we would change this.
One of the things I focused on for my research portion of my capstone has been dedicated to looking into Ohio's new law on menstruation products. I did some research, because I had talked with my mentor, who is the school nurse and also my advisor. She said that this was not a law. I was shocked when she said this, because I had already learned by doing little research that it was. In October of 2023, “Ohio Law requires each traditional public school district, community school, STEM school, chartered nonpublic school and other public school with school buildings that enroll girls in grades six through twelve to provide free menstrual products” (Ohio Department of Education, 2023). As seen in this quote, there is a law in place that states that schools are to be supplying free menstruation products. When I looked further into this at Jackson High School, I found that our school technically is supplying free menstruation products but not in the way that they should be. I believe that menstruation products should be in all school bathrooms, emphasis on the bathrooms. When discussing with the school the need for the products in the bathrooms, I was told that they are in the nurse's office and students are able to get these products at any time. As a person who menstruates I fully understand not wanting to ask to go to the nurses office. Also if someone were to start their period in the bathroom, what help would the products be in the nurse's office.