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SALT LAKE CITY — Community advocates and lawmakers endorsing a bill placing period products in all Utah schools have turned to students to propel the cause through the legislative session and into school bathrooms.
The bill, HB162, requires all Utah schools to provide menstrual period products in certain restrooms in all school facilities, as well as inform students of the availability and accessibility of the products, and to incorporate those products into school operations and budgets.
The bill is championed by the Utah Policy Project as part of the student group's 'The Period Project' campaign, and it is sponsored by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield. The Period Project is an effort to end "period poverty," which is a lack of access to menstrual products, education, hygiene facilities and waste management.
While the project has been an ongoing campaign by the Utah Policy Project, the issue gained considerable attention in November with a rally held at the state Capitol. The rally drew over 100 people ranging from women, girls, fathers, brothers and educators.
It also featured speakers like Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, who said Gov. Spencer Cox's administration is "behind" the bill. While many Utahns have voiced support for the bill, the Utah Policy Project has asked students to add their voices to the chorus.
The group has launched a student ambassador program, involving students from more than 60 public and private middle schools and high schools across the state. The program consists of a series of training events teaching students leadership skills, the legislative process and how to engage in it, and how to advocate for issues that affect them.
The first training series was held in Salt Lake City on Tuesday with over 200 students registering to attend.
Utah Policy Project founder Emily Belle McCormick pointed to 68% of girls having missed school due to a lack of access to period products and one in five teens unable to afford them. The capacity of the issue was illustrated when McCormick asked the group of students, "Who here has a period story?" and a sea of hands tentatively rose across the room.
Among those students were Lone Peak High School students Hannah Nielson and Dylann Riggs.
The 17-year-olds felt compelled by the program because it "felt greater than just high school," Nielson said.
"We're not living in shame anymore," Riggs said. "It's a medical necessity and the fact that so many women are deprived of that is, frankly, sickening."
Utah Period Project student ambassadors like Riggs and Nielson will be asked to:
- Set up an appointment with a school administrator, such as a principal or a vice principal, and have a conversation about period poverty, specifically, the reason this issue matters at their own school.
- Hang a poster from the event with permission in their school, encouraging other students to support the legislative effort to put free period products in all Utah public and charter schools.
- Share about period poverty and the bill to put period products in schools on social media.
- Each ambassador at the event also sent out two letters urging their state senators and representatives to vote in favor of the bill.
"This issue is so important. We need to get it done — it is a fundamental need for girls and menstruators— but the reality is we need to start teaching these girls at a young age that their voice counts. So tonight is about period poverty, it is about getting period products in schools. But it's also more importantly about the big picture," McCormick said.
Part of the "big picture" spans beyond education and into the realms of public health and workforce issues, McCormick added. But resolving those issues on a bigger level requires representation and reach.
"The biggest reason that we have such a fundamental need that's been overlooked, which is (the availability of) menstrual products for women and girls, is that we have not had the representation there," McCormick said. "When when we don't have women present we don't talk about the issues that affect them."
But Utah legislators have the opportunity to change that as the session begins, said Mary Catherine Perry, Utah Policy Project director of policy and government affairs.
"This is definitely an opportunity for Utah to lead out on this issue. It's not really common to see this happening at a statewide level. And so for Utah to step forward and say, 'We believe in this, we agree with this, we're going to pay for this and we're going to make this happen. It's that important to us.' I think it does begin to lift us kind of out of that status as not being as supportive of women and girls," Perry said.
She continued, "We hope this is the beginning of a long journey of pulling Utah up and really leading out on supporting its women and girls."
