This fall, Toronto public schools will begin supplying free tampons and pads to students, in a bid to improve access to menstrual hygiene products and end period poverty.

At a Toronto District School Board meeting Monday evening, trustees voted unanimously to provide menstrual products in all elementary and secondary schools.

It’s an initiative that comes at no cost to the board.

“It sends a really strong and powerful message to students in our system that we care about their health and well-being,” said Trustee Stephanie Donaldson, who represents Ward 9 Davenport and Spadina-Fort York. “We care about breaking down systemic barriers .… (This) is an access issue and it’s an easy fix.”

In an interview with the Star, she noted research shows one in seven Canadian girls have either left school early, or missed school entirely, because they can’t afford or access menstrual products.

Donaldson and Trustee Harpreet Gill introduced the motion.

“This was not only about providing free menstrual products,” said Gill, who represents Ward 1 Etobicoke North. “This is about achieving equity and sending out the powerful, and much needed, message towards eliminating the stigma around menstruation …. As the largest school board in Canada, we have a responsibility to normalize and equalize access to menstrual products in our schools to create better learning environments.”

At the TDSB — it has 582 schools and serves 246,000 students — staff are still sorting out the logistics around how the board will provide the products, which will be supplied by Physical Health Education Canada, a national charitable association. For instance, will they be in girls’ washrooms and/or non-binary washrooms? Will they be available in baskets or dispensers?

“I view access to menstrual products as a basic right,” said Gill. “These products belong in the same category as toilet paper, soap and water in washrooms. It is important for other school boards, not only in Ontario, but across Canada, to implement similar initiatives.”

Last spring, British Columbia became the first province to offer free menstrual products to students. And in Ontario, other boards — Thames Valley District School Board in London and the Waterloo Region District School Board — have taken steps to provide free tampons and pads in schools.

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Donaldson and Gill were inspired earlier this year after attending a conference by the Ontario Public School Boards' Association. There, they heard a speech by student trustee Sarah Chun, who spearheaded the initiative at the Thames Valley District School Board.

Chun, who’s starting Grade 12, says girls should be focused on their education, not on their period.

“This is an equity issue,” said Chun, president of the public board council of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. “It affects everyone who gets periods — we can’t be expected to carry around period supplies or quarters in our pockets all the time.”

She says having sanitary products available in washrooms means, when girls get their period unexpectedly, they don’t need to go back to class for a tampon, a pad or a quarter for the dispenser, which can be “embarassing” and “disruptive to their education.”

And there are those who can’t afford menstrual products, she says.

“Food comes first.”

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She was motivated to push for change, because some of her friends were missing school, blaming it on period cramps, when, in reality, they couldn’t pay for menstrual products.

“It’s humiliating to be walking around all day with a pad or tampon that needs to be changed,” she told the Star.

Toronto youth have been vocal about the problem. Last winter, students from Etobicoke School of the Arts sent a letter, and petition, calling on the TDSB to end period poverty, calling it “a major health concern.”

“Many individuals are forced to put themselves at risk for toxic shock syndrome during their period due to lack of resources,” they wrote in the letter. “They may also be forced to use rags, toilet paper or other less sanitary alternatives in order to preserve their dignity.”

Trustee Gill said she hopes students continue speaking out.

“This motion was inspired by student advocacy, and, with it passing, we want students to continue voicing their concern for other barriers within our system.”