Hello, my name is Ashlie and I'm a student in Salem Public Schools.

Imagine you are in a public place and you have an emergency and you go quickly to the bathroom and you finish relieving yourself and there is no toilet paper. What would you do at that time? 

Find a way to clean yourself up?  Pull up your pants and leave? Call a friend and tell him/her what happened? Use a newspaper?  You will have no idea of what to do at that time and this is how people who menstruate feel. 

Today I want to talk about how having free period supplies in the school bathroom would help those who menstruate to feel comfortable at any moment.

Research from Menstrual Health Hub shows that it is important to have free menstruation products at school, because many of the people who menstruate suffer from very strong pain that sometimes does not allow them to attend school. Also It is vital to consider this because according to the State of the Period, many students would rather miss class than go to school while menstruating if they do not have access to feminine hygiene products.So this shows that menstrual products should be available because in that way the people who menstruate can feel safer and more confident going to school without worrying that they don't have enough pads and that they aren't going to have the support from the school and be more concentrated on the classes.

My own experience illustrates how difficult it can be for people who menstruate, because while I was in regular classes, I was always worried that when my period arrived, my pants would get dirty, and because of this, I would always ask my friends to peek at me. Examine whether the sanitary pad was visible and, if so, whether it was unclean. On one occasion, I got a bit dirty on my jeans and didn't want to walk. Further, I had to run to the bathroom several times because I thought it was about to arrive, but there were no sanitary pads in the bathrooms, so I had to make do with toilet paper until I got home.This show that it’s important because I know that I am not the only one who goes through this at school, I know that there are many people who go through this day by day and on many occasions because of being ashamed of going to the nurse office, they prefer to go home or ask a very confident friend because they feel uncomfortable and I say it because I have friends who do that.

Based on my research, people who menstruate spend about $63.36 on pads annually. taking out from that calculation those who menstruate a lot and who always have to buy more than one pack of sanitary pads.This is especially important for low-income students who worry every time or every month that they have no way to get those products. Moreover in Massachusetts many public schools like Boston, Somerville, Brookline, Cambridge are starting to supplement the girls bathrooms with free products. Thanks to these schools, many of the students will not have to worry about whether it will arrive and they will not have products or if it arrives they will not have to miss classes and if that could be possible in those places it can also be possible here.

I propose that the school offer free menstrual products such as pads and tampons in every bathroom at the school. If you want to help take action on this battle please sign my petition form.