Youth activists are at the forefront of the period poverty movement and they're creating real change.
Daphne Ischer was taking a test during her freshman year in high school when she unexpectedly got her period in class. She rushed to the bathroom but couldn't find a tampon.
"I literally just had to walk around the hallway looking for other students," the 17-year-old, now a senior at Tualatin High School in Tualatin, Oregon, told TODAY."I asked probably 10 people before I was able to find someone with a tampon.""Paper towels and toilet paper? They're provided. They're a necessity. Had I been able to just go in there and get what I needed, it wouldn't have been a problem," Ischer said.
It's a story she's told many times — to her school board as well as to state legislators at a hearing earlier this year in support of the Menstrual Dignity Act, a bill that passed largely thanks to efforts from students like Ischer, and which now requires all public schools in Oregon to provide free period products to students.
"This bill was brought up by thousands and thousands of Oregon students from every corner of the state just saying, 'This is a basic need that everyone should have,' and they felt schools should be able to provide it," Rep. Ricki Ruiz, a chief sponsor of the bill, told TODAY."There were a lot of traumatizing stories that current and former students shared. For me and I think for some of my colleagues, it was a real eye-opener. No student should feel like that.
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