Legislation that would provide free tampons to teenage girls in public high schools and middle schools city-wide is still winding its way through the City Council, but this month young women at 25 middle schools and high schools in the Bronx and Queens will have access to free sanitary products in new dispensers installed in school bathrooms.
The pilot program, which will serve schools in District 24 in Queens and District 9 in the Bronx—spanning primarily low-income neighborhoods including Corona, Glendale, Ridgewood, Elmhurst, Grand Concourse and Tremont—was inspired by a successful free-tampon program launched last year at the High School for Arts and Business in Corona, according to the News. Rollout starts today, and should be complete by April 1st.
Queens Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who's sponsoring the legislation for free tampons in schools, worked with the Department of Education to select the pilot districts. "Girls in these districts face the greatest financial hardships,” Ferreras-Copeland told the tabloid. “I want to ensure none of them lose class time, face illness or feel humiliated because their family cannot afford pads.” Most women spend over $60 per year on tampons—no small expenditure for a teenager.
According to the DOE, the 25-school rollout will cost about $160,000 this year, and could be expanded to more schools depending on how well it goes over.
Earlier this month, a group of five women filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, claiming that the state's 4% sales tax on tampons—but not "medical" items like Rogaine, adult diapers and dandruff shampoo—violates the Equal Protection clauses of the United States and New York State Constitutions. And as of February, Manhattan Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal and Senator Sue Serino of Dutchess County are pushing for the same tax exemption at the State level.
While some high schools in NYC already distribute free tampons through the nurse's office, there's a case to be made for the anonymity of bathroom dispensers. “You feel more confident and don’t feel as nervous,” Ashley Celik, a sophomore at Arts and Business High School, told the News. "You can just grab it whenever you need it. It’s there for you.”
Nancy Kramer of Free The Tampons put it this way to New York Magazine last fall, when Arts and Business got its dispenser: “Men walk into their restroom and they have everything in it that they need to take care of their normal bodily functions. Women don't."
