Measure would provide free menstrual products to Hawaii public, charter school students
Posted: February 9, 2022
The state House Education Committee Tuesday unanimously approved House Bill 2249 that would require Hawaii public and charter schools to provide free, quality menstrual products to students, moving it one step closer to becoming law.
Last month, the state Senate Education Committee unanimously approved its companion bill, with plans to appropriate $1 million to provide menstrual products to public and charter school students.
The Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) maintained in its written testimony that menstrual products are available at some schools, although students may be charged a nominal fee (e.g., 50 cents each) to reimburse costs.
Interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi said, “Having these materials available to students for free at school campuses could potentially help them to stay in class and engage in instructional and co-curricular activities.”
During the hearing, Heidi Armstrong, assistant superintendent of the Office of Student Support Services testified on behalf of the HIDOE in support of the bill, but said the department, “would opt not to provide tampons because of the potential risk of the user to not follow all label directions in the package and for the increased risk for infections such as yeast, fungal and bacterial.”
House Education Committee Chair Justin Woodson (D, Kahului, Puunene) challenged the HIDOE’s stance not to provide tampons and asked for reaction from Maʻi Movement Hawaiʻi, a nonprofit that’s committed to ending period poverty in Hawaii by advocating for menstrual equity.
Woodson asked Maʻi Movement’s co-founder Nikki-Ann Yee, “Do you believe all products can be offered at DOE schools, and you see any issues as Armstrong had brought up?”
Yee said that during its pilot program, which started at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, the nonprofit offered six Hawaii schools the option of pads and/or tampons and left it as a school-based decision. The pilot, financed by grant monies, placed both tampons and pads at: DreamHouse Public Charter School, Farrington High School and Princess Ruth Ke’elikolani Middle School on Oahu; Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School on Kauai; Kalama Intermediate School on Maui; and Kau High and Pahala Elementary School on Hawaii Island.
“All schools requested both products,” Yee maintained. “The comments and concerns that Miss Armstrong brought up, I also took it back and asked several other states that have passed legislation whether or not this was an issue, and you know, they did not see it as an issue.
“I do not see it as an issue,” Yee continued. “I think it should still be permissive to allow schools to make that decision if they offer pads and tampons.”
According to a study by Maʻi Movement and the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, eight out of 10 students in Hawaii have faced difficulties getting period products when they need them, leading students to leave school early or not come to school at all.
Watch: The House Education Committee hears House Bill 2249
Teacher and student advocacy leads to awareness, passage of bill
Ilima Intermediate School teacher Sarah Milianta-Laffin has been championing to end period poverty in Hawaii schools since the 2020 legislative session.
Eighth-grader Telia Hao-Aunese, who is one of Milianta-Laffin’s students, testified at Tuesday’s hearing saying that as kids, they’ve known period poverty has been a problem for a long time, but “it’s taken a while to get the adults to listen.”
Milianta-Laffin maintained in her written testimony that “period products are school supplies. If a student comes to my classroom without a pencil, I give them a pencil. If a student comes to my classroom without menstrual products, I give them those also.”
She also stated that the bill would support gender equality, public health, and basic hygiene.
Michael Golojuch Jr., chair of the Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, lauded Milianta-Laffin’s efforts toward ending period poverty in Hawaii’s schools, crediting her and her students for “keeping the fight alive.”
“We would like to use this opportunity to give her kudos and thank you to Miss Mili… and all of her student advocates,” Golojuch Jr. said. “Without their leadership and their fight and their tenacity, I do not believe we’d be hearing this bill today.
He continued to thank Milianta-Laffin’s students for educating themselves, their teachers, other advocates, and legislatures on the “much-needed necessity.”
Alluding to the HIDOE’s request to exclude tampons from the measure, Golojuch Jr. said, “I guess I have more faith in our students, and so if a student wants to use a tampon, they should have access to a tampon.”
These bills will next be heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and the state House Finance Committee.
Sarah Milianta-Laffin (far right) with her students at Ilima Intermediate School after testifying on HB 2249.