Protecting guns instead of girls

The shitty reality of the 21st century

Photo by me

I’m 45 years old and I’ve never been so disgusted with the American education system as I am now. No, I’m not talking about controversial curricula or banned books. I’m talking about something much more basic and visceral: a girl’s fundamental right to manage her own menstruation with dignity.

When I read about Emma, a teenager from Tennessee who had to hide pads in her hair because her school banned backpacks, I felt a familiar anger bubble up inside me. I instantly remembered the day when, at 13, I stained my white pants during a math class. The difference? I had a backpack with toiletries. Emma has no such “lust”.

Let’s be brutally honest: we are sacrificing the psychological and physical well-being of our girls on the altar of a false sense of security. According to the Pew Research Center, only 0.2% of schools in the US have ever experienced an active shooting. However, 100% of menstruating girls in these schools are forced to deal with a much quieter, everyday form of institutional violence.

The irony is poignant: in a society that prides itself on being “developed”, we have 13-year-old girls hiding pads in their shoes and wearing scrunchies with secret compartments as if they were spies on a clandestine mission. And for what purpose? To…