How Caddo Parish led effort to end 'period poverty' for school girls, now statewide bill

Louisiana middle school and high school girls told lawmakers Wednesday that menstrual products are as essential "as toilet paper and soap" to learning and sanitary hygiene, convincing a House panel to advance a bill that would require all public schools to make the products free and easily accessible.

It's the third straight year Democratic New Orleans Rep. Aimee Freeman has brought the measure, this time as House Bill 310, and each time before it has overwhelmingly passed the House but died without a final hearing on the Senate floor.

"It can be terribly embarrassing and horrible if you don't have the products needed to keep blood from showing up on your (clothes at school)," Freeman told the committee, which approved the bill on a 9-2 vote.

But the most compelling testimony, lawmakers agreed, came from students advocating for the end of "period poverty," noting many of their classmates can't afford menstrual products. That can lead to missing school, they said, or anxiety that distracts them from academic success.

Caddo Parish Magnet student Sadie Sledge, a member of the GirlUp advocacy group that convinced the Caddo Parish School Board to already provide menstrual products, said the lack of sanitary products "inhibits the ability to learn."

Her Principal R.J. Middleton praised the efforts of the girls whose past and present advocacy led the way. "It was all student-led," Middleton said.

New Orleans Girl Scout Lucy Collins said her Troop 70174 also lead an effort to stock their school and its three campuses with menstrual products but advocates for a statewide law.

"We are women and we have to deal with this," she said.

Freeman's bill would require the state to provide funding before local schools are compelled to comply.

"Listening to these students inspires me to keep fighting on their behalf," Freeman said.

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Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.