High School Hijacks Menstruation Taboos

At George School, a private school in Newtown, Pa., Vienna Vernose, a senior, was upset after a boy reacted by saying “ew” when a tampon fell from her backpack. She talked about it with male and female classmates in her Women’s History Seminar, who decided to form the Menstrual Product Equality campaign, setting out bowls filled with tampons in public areas during the school’sronu open house. Signs next to the bowls read, “These are here for anyone who needs them. Never be ashamed of your body and what it needs.”

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a writer and lawyer from Maplewood, N.J., who is involved in the push for lifting taxes and providing supplies in public restrooms and schools, said her “Aha” moment came when young women in her town launched a tampon collec- tion drive for the local food pantry, as part of a group called Girls Helping Girls. Period.

Roni Caryn Rabin, from “Free the Tampons,” New York Times, March 1, 2016.