Fred T. Korematsu Middle School in El Cerrito, CA,  does not have period products installed in their bathrooms, which will be illegal under California laws starting in 2022-2023. Not only this, but the law states that they must also be free. If this doesn't change soon then the school will be breaking the law in the future. Even if it weren't a law, it is still necessary for people to be able to access period products. Period inequality has been skyrocketing at this school since all the girls' bathrooms have been locked, and female students must have an adult escort take them to the bathroom and supervise them. Many teachers have been preventing female students from getting stuff from their backpacks before using the restroom, including pads, tampons, and other forms of period products. This also impacts menstruaters who can't afford to purchase period products. Vandalism has been happening in all bathrooms all around campus, especially the boys' bathroom, but women are being forced to take the blame. The school is threatening to expel women who are minorly vandalizing bathrooms (with small pencil marks, might I add), but have set no consequences for the major graffiti and destruction of property in the boys' bathroom. This needs to stop immediately. Please sign this petition if you believe in period equality. 

Prior to this alleged vandalism that the school claims is caused by women, there was more destruction to the boys' bathroom in September and October. The school claimed to have a supervisor outside the bathrooms to keep notes on who went in, but there was no supervisor. In addition, the school claimed that all of the boys' bathrooms but two were locked (even though the destruction in September and October was far worse than the small graffiti in November and December, and all of the girls' bathrooms are locked). I, several times, have seen people go into those bathrooms while they were "locked", and I, myself, went in multiple times to investigate. All of those times, the bathrooms were unlocked. Another claim that the school made is that the people who did it would be punished. Several people were exposed for doing it, and nobody got punished. Women are getting severe punishments and most menstruaters use the girls' bathroom, which prevents women from being able to handle their periods.

A common excuse used to justify this is that schools can't afford to buy period products, but this point is invalid. First of all, the school has fundraisers, such as the winter dance on Dec. 10. Second of all, there are resources that provide inexpensive, good quality, gender-neutral, and sustainable period products. One of these resources is August, a company founded by Nadya Okamoto. August sells up to 160 period products (pads, tampons, and liners) for only $34:00. There are also ways to an order every month so that they don't need to keep repurchasing. (Link to August: https://www.itsaugust.co/ )Another reason that this is not an excuse is that schools can afford to buy things that aren't necessities when they could be using that money to buy actual necessities. Not only these three reasons, but people are currently offering to donate money for the school to afford the period products. 

Please help fix this serious problem by signing this petition and sharing it.