Meet the students who fought for free menstrual products at Washington schools — and won
When they were freshmen, Jinyang Zhang and Ramya Arumilli advocated for free menstrual products in their school bathrooms. This year, they were part of a successful effort to secure the same for students statewide.
Zhang and Arumilli, now seniors at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, were two of the many students who testified in support of House Bill 1273 during the legislative session that ended last month.
Among other students and advocates who pushed for the bill were seniors taking AP Government at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland who participated in the TVW Capitol Classroom program. A previous class in the program at their school helped launch the bill’s journey, and this class helped carry it to the finish line.
They made a straightforward argument: Products such as tampons and pads are necessities, like toilet paper or soap. Some people can’t afford them, and a lack of access puts menstruating students at a disadvantage.
“It felt like if the bill passed, it could actually make a tangible difference in our lives and our peers’ lives,” said Lake Washington senior Lily Ulrich in a video interview McClatchy conducted with students and teachers.
Public testimony in support of the bill was sharply timed and chock full of data, prompting praise from lawmakers. Bill sponsor Rep. April Berg, D-Mill Creek, called it the “gold standard.”
The effort drew bipartisan sponsorship and broadly bipartisan votes. Last Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee signed it into state law.
The law requires school districts, private K-12 schools, charter schools, state-tribal compact schools, and public and private institutions of higher education to offer free menstrual hygiene products by the 2022-23 school year.
In schools with grades 6 through 12, products such as tampons and pads have to be available in all bathrooms that are gender-neutral or designated for female students. If there aren’t gender-neutral bathrooms, a school has to offer them in a bathroom that male students can access or in a health room open to all students.
Schools with grades 3 through 5 have to make them available in a health room or another location.
Students drove the bill’s success, Berg confirmed.
“It was all hands on deck,” Berg told McClatchy. “Without the students and them really pushing us to be better and staying resilient and staying on message, it just wouldn’t have happened.”
Meet some of the students
Teacher Michael Dawson has been part of the TVW Capitol Classroom project at Lake Washington for the better part of a decade. He and Bethany Shoda, also an AP Government teacher at the school, participated in the program this year.
Students in recent years have pursued their own policy ideas, Dawson said. Lawmakers listen, then usually use at least one to create legislation.
Lobbyist Michael Moran then facilitates the Lake Washington students’ involvement in the lawmaking process — giving updates on a bill’s status, answering questions, telling them whom to contact. He’s been lobbying since 1998.
“If we really want to solve contemporary problems, we should actually ask high school students: What do they want?” Moran told McClatchy.
Last year’s class presented the free menstrual products idea to Sen. Manka Dhingra, who introduced a bill that made it through the Senate but died in the House.
This year, lawmakers introduced a more expansive version in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Students pitched new ideas this year, Dawson said, but knew they’d champion the menstrual products bill still in play. The remote environment of the legislative session — and of school — made this year different.
Typically, they would have to wrangle buses or ask who could drive to Olympia and potentially miss an entire school day to testify, Dawson said. This year, students testified remotely along with everyone else.
Students were able to collaborate in new ways, Shoda said.
“I think in a normal school year, I still would’ve done this,” student Ulrich said. “But I think I wanted to do it more this year because it was one of the only things that was, like, good about school, or special.”
Zhang and Arumilli, the seniors in Mukilteo, came at the issue from a different angle.
They were introduced to the legislative process through a chapter of the youth-led nonprofit PERIOD. Their experience with that organization led them to campaign for free menstrual products in their high school — a goal that proved difficult, they said, but which they ultimately achieved.
They supported the bill that exempted menstrual products from sales tax last year, they said. They formed their own group in 2020, Washington for Menstrual Equity, and focus on local and state policy.
Their group has grown to about eight members across the state, they said, and has endorsed candidates, engaged with lawmakers, coordinated with other groups, and advocated for policies on social media.
Personal, tangible significance
Equity was a key piece of the students’ effort: A lack of access to tampons and pads has especially serious implications for their peers from low-income households.
“Their biological function ended up being a barrier to receiving their education, and their peers and male counterparts were getting ahead on projects and tests and learning the material in school while they were at home,” said Lake Washington senior Riley Rabuchin.
“You have to ask yourself: How is that fair? And it’s not. So I really wanted to step in to help some of these students and bring what they were going through to light.”
Another Lake Washington senior, Sophie Derome, also thought of her younger sister. She wanted to show her that the topic of menstruation doesn’t have to be embarrassing or uncomfortable.
For Nelly Mex Canal, also a Lake Washington senior, her own background offered motivation.
“I’m a Latino student, I’m an immigrant, I haven’t always spoken English the way I do now,” she said. “And so I experience a lot of disparities in education and so I’ve always wanted to work on something that will help make other students not feel the way I felt, and to make it so that all students feel welcomed and comforted in school.”
A lesson on making change
The reward for their work goes beyond a tangible outcome for students across the state.
“It’s taught me to use my voice and that my voice can make an impact,” Rabuchin said. “There’s many pressing issues facing today’s society, but I was often overwhelmed on where to start or how to actively address these issues.”
Talking about the project at home sparked conversations and shifts in perspective they hope will become commonplace.
“Even in my own family, I feel like the stigma changed just by being able to testify on this bill,” Ulrich said. “So I’m excited for that to be able to happen for a lot of people throughout the state.”
Zhang and Arumilli hope to help schools implement the law and work on other areas where menstrual equity may be an issue, such as detention centers.
The legislative process is much more approachable than they first imagined, the students agree.
“It’s not that difficult: You just find something you care about and look for all the little things that you can do, and the little things do make a difference,” Derome said.
Zhang and Arumilli recommend students contact their local legislators if they want to get involved, or find a group that shares their interest. They learned a lot about the process “through doing” — figuring out what technical terms meant and how it all works.
“I cannot tell students enough: If you see a problem, let’s figure out a solution together,” Rep. Berg said.
The answer is not always policy, she said. But sometimes it is.
This story was originally published May 8, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Meet the students who fought for free menstrual products at Washington schools — and won."
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