Student Health Advocacy & Period Justice

Healthier students through bodily autonomy 

Our goal is to alleviate some of the stress that comes with dealing with your period at school. As most period-having people know, cramps can be debilitating along with headaches, heat flashes, lightheadedness, and sleepiness. All of these symptoms make it almost impossible to do schoolwork with ease, and we end up having to push our bodies when we shouldn’t have to. 

We need to create policies to help students who have periods.

Students who have periods may experience severe pain in class, making it hard to focus. Some teachers force students to stay in class, which is more detrimental to the students than anything. Students also shouldn't have to sacrifice their health to keep good attendance.

Franklin students who have periods are having traumatic experiences — many of which are avoidable or preventable.

After conducting a Google Form survey asking for personal experiences franklin students had with their periods at school, we found a trend in students being forced to have traumatic experiences due to them not being allowed to leave class to address their health needs.

There is a disconnect with students and teachers when teachers require students to stay in class even when in immense pain caused by menstruation. Students could also be put a very awkward social situation if not given the adequate time to take care of their needs.

Some students shared their experiences:

We can do better. Here are some ideas how:

• • Students should be allowed to email the teacher and the nurse to be excused to take a break until they are ready to return back to class.

  • Students should be able to stay in the nurse for a full period, and then return to class. This is a better alternative to the current rule, where students may only stay for 30 mins before having to either return back to class, or go home.

Trade-offs

• Students may miss important content while out of class.

• Teachers would have less control over their students' bodies and physical presence.

Benefits

• Better student morale. Treating students with trust and respect will make them trust and respect the adult staff more. Students perform better when their learning environment is comfortable.

• Bodily autonomy. You should not have to force your body to do anything you don’t feel well enough doing. Think about what the alternative teaches: is attendance more important than student health?

• Better student health. If students feel less pressure to stay in class when they don’t feel well enough, they will be more comfortable listening to and treating their bodies properly.