While talking about “period products” can make some people squirm, at Ilima Intermediate School it’s not uncommon for a student to march into teacher Sarah Milianta-Laffin’s classroom, grab a sanitary pad from the “Menstruation Station” cart near the door and declare out loud, “Miss, I think I need a thick pad! It’s a heavy day!”

“I’m like, look at how that student could just own her truth like that,” says Mili­anta-Laffin, a science teacher at the Ewa Beach campus, which has served as a pilot-program site for Hawaii’s new law that makes menstrual products available for free in all public schools. “This kid is going to grow up more body-aware, and they’re going to teach their kids. … If we’re saying that we’re preparing students for the rest of their lives, part of that is teaching them how to care for themselves.”

But it’s taken three years for Ilima to develop both a massive culture shift and a distribution system so that Ilima students can easily talk about and get period products, and chip away at the shroud of shame and taboo that have surrounded the topic for generations.

Dozens of other Hawaii schools are still reporting difficulty either procuring the products via the new law and/or building effective distribution systems and a schoolwide level of comfort with the sensitive topic.

Full statewide implementation of the “menstrual equity” state legislation is turning out to be a more complex and delicate undertaking than even some lawmakers and education officials expected.

The new state law, backed with a $2 million legislative appropriation, mandates that menstrual products — which “includes but is not limited to disposable menstrual pads and tampons” — be offered free to students who need them at all of Hawaii’s 258 public schools and 37 charter schools.

Hawaii joins 16 other states and Washington, D.C., in passing legislation to provide students who menstruate with free access to period products while in school, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies, a national network of nonprofit organizations. Three more states provide funding for period products in schools that opt to offer them.

Efforts to fight “period poverty” — the lack of access for some to menstrual products because of financial constraints — are gaining national momentum on multiple fronts. CVS announced this month that it’s cutting the cost of CVS Health brand period products by 25%, and will pay applicable sales tax for menstrual products in 12 states, including Hawaii, to encourage wider access.

But in the months since Hawaii’s menstrual equity law passed this spring, nearly 50 schools that have been unsure how to procure additional period products and/or make them easily accessible to students have reached out for guidance from Ma‘i Movement Hawai‘i, a nonprofit organization whose lobbying was key to the law’s passage. (“Ma‘i” is a Hawaiian word referring to menstruation.)

And the schools that reached out likely were only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, said Ma‘i Movement co-founder Nikki-Ann Yee. Even now, more than one academic quarter into the school year, and almost four months since the law was signed by Gov. David Ige, some educators report that their schools still are not offering menstrual supplies procured under the new legislation.

Schools already commonly stocked small amounts of menstrual products for students’ emergency use, often in health rooms. But exactly how many campuses still are not offering wider access to larger amounts now, and the reasons, are unclear.

State Department of Education Communications Director Nanea Kalani said the $2 million has been distributed equitably to all the schools based on student enrollment, and a memo sent to schools July 22 included price lists for schools to order menstrual pads themselves. Tampons were not included on the list for now, although they may be considered later, she said.

Yee said lately she is hearing that more schools finally are receiving more pads. Still, even the campus distribution operated by Milianta- Laffin and her students at Ilima, which is in the vanguard as one of six schools in the pilot project launched last school year, was still relying this month on supplies donated by community nonprofit organizations.

Sensitivity is important

Then after a school receives its full allocation of newly procured menstrual products, advocates say, there is a crucial additional step: devising a compassionate and informative system of offering the products so that students will actually use them.

“I think the DOE did do their due diligence of informing principals and complex superintendents (of the law), but how that trickles down … there are still pukas,” Yee said. “Schools are trying to figure out: Alright, if we have these period products now, what do we do with them? Where do we put them?”

Because of the embarrassment many students feel about menstruation, Yee and other advocates say, multiple locations for products should be offered, and chosen sensitively. Students, teachers and staff must be armed with accurate information about the products and menstruation. Clear messages and signs should promote responsibility and self-care, and prevent hoarding of products, toilet clogging and other problems. Eventually, new social norms should enable everyone involved to feel safe talking about menstruation and handling period products, advocates say.

An online “toolkit” produced by Ma‘i Movement recommends three guiding principles to help schools start up: free and easy access, convenience, and freedom from barriers, such as having to ask.

Even though this approach to implementation isn’t required by law or mentioned in the DOE memos to schools, Kalani said the department is supporting it. For instance, the department is inviting principals and other school leaders statewide to a webinar led by Yee on Oct. 24 to learn best practices.

Strategies that do not work already are clear, advocates say, such as leaving large amounts of menstrual products in unsupervised boxes in the health room, the school office or bathrooms with no explanation or education, or regard for some students’ shyness about products and the topic.

Many of these lessons were learned the hard way at Ilima.

Distribution changed

Three years ago when Milianta-Laffin and students began distributing period products at Ilima as a school service project, for instance, “we put the products in baskets in the restrooms, and unfortunately, we did that before we taught students about it, before we educated people on period poverty, so the awareness wasn’t there. And so it did become an issue where they were playing in the bathroom or plugging the toilets with the products,” provoking the ire of the custodians, she said.

The Ilima team also discovered when they used plastic sandwich bags to pack a variety of items together for students, “girls were less likely to take them because you could see right through them,” Milianta- Laffin said.

Through such trial and error, Ilima has devised an approach that is a mix of levity, education and gentle guidance, helping to demystify menstruation and help students understand that it’s a natural part of growing up, Milianta-Laffin said.

These days “Miss Mili,” as students fondly call her, keeps a colorful rolling cart of drawers stuffed with a variety of menstrual products in the doorway of her classroom so that students can grab and go. At recess and lunch, she rolls the “Menstruation Station” near the bathrooms, then stands nearby to supervise and dispense cheery encouragement to the crowds of students rifling through the stacks of period products, wipes and panties. “Anytime you need, you know where to find us!” she calls out.

Some items are pre- bundled in opaque pencil cases for privacy, and some in cloth bags sporting cheeky slogans such as “Shark Week Survival Kit.” Inside the packs, student volunteers often include candies and handwritten uplifting messages, such as “You got this!” and “Have a great day — period.”

Smaller stations are available also in the classrooms of a half-dozen other teachers who have requested them: Alongside other self-care items such as hand sanitizer and wipes, there are period products, or information on how to get them on campus.

Eighth grader Xaysha-Rae Viernes, one of a group of Ilima student leaders who helped usher in the new law by testifying at the Legislature, said she continues to help with the distribution program at her campus because free access is helping students to miss fewer school days. She added that it’s important for students to get involved, but they must be ready for occasional teasing and scorn from peers. “You have to have tough skin. You have to be strong if this is what you believe in,” she said.

Lanai High & Elementary School is entrusting two students to lead the charge on their campus. Seniors Samantha Villa and Souina Seiuli are making period product distribution their STEM AP Capstone project. While it is still in the planning stages, they’re considering studying the safety of chemicals in various period products, and taking surveys and keeping data on campus distribution to maximize efficiency.

“I think that having student voice … and having the students involved in being able to determine what areas they need it the most, will also give them a little bit more ownership over it, and maybe they’ll be a little bit more respectful towards utilizing the products,” their AP Capstone teacher, Michelle Fujie, said.

Academics improving

Are free period products helping students to improve academic achievement? Supporters like Yee believe so.

A 2021 study on “period poverty” by Ma‘i Movement and the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women had reported that 30% of survey respondents said they or someone in their household had difficulty obtaining period products mostly because of cost. Many students reported resorting to such items as newspapers, old rags, diapers and leaves when they did not have access to menstrual products.

The study also found that 42% percent of respondents missed class or left school because of lack of access to menstrual products, and nearly 22% missed school entirely. Of those who missed school, nearly 23% missed three to five school days in an academic year, and 6% missed six to 10 school days.

Now preliminary new survey data from Ma‘i Movement suggests that access to free period products is helping students do better in school. The organization surveyed 920 Hawaii students in the pilot project and found that over half said having free access to menstrual products boosted students’ academic performance, school attendance and social engagement.

Meanwhile, 260 pilot- project teachers surveyed reported similar student gains in academics and overall well-being. And teachers who reported that students missed school days due to lack of access to period products declined to 8% from 26%.

Results like these are why Yee keeps working around the clock to support the schools even though she is not a DOE employee. Her dream is to get free period supplies legislated next for the 10-campus University of Hawaii system, then statewide.

“I think that it’s undeniable that there is still this shame and stigma” around menstruation, she said. “But periods were happening regardless of this law, and periods are not stopping. At the end of the day, we are trying to protect the safety and health of our keiki.”

MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS POLL

Well over half of 920 Hawaii students surveyed by the nonprofit Ma‘i Movement Hawai‘i said having free access to menstrual products boosts students’ academic performance, school attendance and social engagement. Students of all genders were surveyed anonymously at six schools that participated in a pilot project in 2021 that provided free period products to all students who needed them. The top seven benefits to students, and the percentage of respondents who reported them, according to the survey:

73% — More confident and secure

70% — More able to continue with day-to-day activities

66% — More able to attend class regularly

65% — More able to take part in clubs, PE, sports, etc.

59% — More able to attend school regularly

58% — More able to do their best schoolwork

55% — More able to engage socially with other students

Source: Ma‘i Movement Hawai‘i