A recent campaign supported by the local Catholic school board asserts the province should be paying for menstrual products in schools – period.
In response to a request from the Toronto Youth Cabinet, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board’s director of education, Francis Bagley, and trustee chair Joe Zerdin sent a joint letter to Minister of Education Stephen Lecce last week asking the government to consider providing funding for free menstrual products in all provincially-funded schools.
“Around the world many girls and women cannot afford menstrual products. This issue sadly also impacts our communities here in Ontario," notes Bagley in the letter. "Lack of access to menstrual products due to economic factors is often referred to as period poverty, which can be damaging at puberty, when school interactions are crucial to a students’ development and mental well-being.
“No student should have to worry about having access to menstrual products,” she wrote.
The Toronto Youth Cabinet put out a call in March to Lecce pushing for the change, calling on the province and all 72 school boards to require free and accessible menstrual products in all publicly funded Ontario elementary and secondary schools.
They are also asking for the province to fund the initiative, that products be provided in ways that protect privacy, and literacy on menstrual health be added into the health curriculum as a mandatory requirement.
“The simple truth is that, for far too long we have ignored the issue about menstrual periods and that silence has hurt our young people,” noted the cabinet in their letter.
The cabinet points to other jurisdictions which have taken steps to provide free menstrual products in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as well as Ontario school boards such as the Toronto District School Board, Waterloo Region District School Board and most recently the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Bluewater District School Board voted on June 24 to start offering free menstrual products in facilities serving students Grades 4 to 12 starting in September, in their washroom facilities.
In February 2020, the Simcoe County District School Board put forward a motion by student trustees for all SCDSB secondary schools to be equipped with a supply of menstrual products offered at no cost to students, which was passed and implemented. The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board also provides free products to students who need them.
However, the programs at both local boards are still funded through the school boards’ budgets or community donations.
“When people who menstruate don’t have access to the resources and information to manage their periods safely and with dignity, they are more likely to miss school and work, face higher health risks, and struggle to reach their full potential,” noted the cabinet.
