Oregon’s Department of Education is forcing public schools to put menstruation products in all bathrooms, according to the department’s website.
The department is tasked with implementing state legislation dubbed the “Menstrual Dignity Act” by legislators. The bill required public schools and universities to put menstrual products in at least two restrooms in each building at no cost to students, according to the text.
For the 2022-2023 school year, the Oregon Department of Education mandated that menstrual products be available “in all restrooms,” according to an email from an education department administrator. Sasha Grenier, the department’s Sexuality Education and School Health Specialist, announced the upcoming changes in an email to educators and administrators.
The education department’s implementation of placing menstrual products appears more dubious than the initial legislation. Guidelines reviewed by the Daily Caller tell educators to talk about “menstrual dignity for transgender, intersex, non-binary, and two-spirit students” in classroom instruction.
“Importantly, this law affirms the right to menstrual dignity for transgender, intersex, non-binary, and two-spirit students by addressing the challenges that some students have managing menstruation while minimizing negative attention that could put them at risk of harm and navigating experiences of gender dysphoria during menstruation,” the guidebook reads.
The guidance states that menstruation is “a biological process,” while simultaneously claiming that any student can ovulate.
Instruction for educators includes using “gender-affirming language within menstrual product instructions,” according to the education department’s guidance. (RELATED: Middle Schoolers Shown Video Endorsing Hormone Therapy)
Examples of “gender-affirming language” include using “menstruating students” instead of “girls,” “menstrual products” instead of “feminine hygiene products,” and explaining that “someone with a uterus and ovaries may begin to menstruate” instead of “girls may begin to menstruate.”
Other stated goals of menstrual instruction for students include “increase awareness of two spirit people, of their historical standing in Tribal Nation communities as highly respected and honored people,” “integrate trans-specific puberty information in K-12 instruction,” and “integrate intersex information and body variation K-12 in anatomy, reproduction, [and] puberty lessons.”
Dru Draper, the Senate GOP communications director, told the Daily Caller he believes this will “waste” taxpayer funds and harm children and custodians.
“The Oregon Department of Education is so beholden to far left gender ideologues, that they now want tampons in boys’ bathrooms,” Draper said. “Not only will this needlessly confuse young children about their bodies, it will waste taxpayer dollars and make the lives of school janitors miserable.”