Tampons can be fun!

[giza]

theweaselking brings us this story, in which some anal retentive school administrators decided that students should no longer have backpacks in school due to "security concerns".

The sole exception? If you are a girl, and it is that time of the month, you may carry your tampons in a purse. Of course, this now tells everyone in the school that you are having your period. And what's worse -- guards have been stopping students with purses and actually asking them, "Do you have your period?"

Understandably, students are horrified and the parents are furious. In fact, the students have been protesting using the following techniques:

- Girls have been wearing tampons on their clothes, and made purses out of tampon boxes

- Boys are wearing maxi-pads stuck to their shirts

- "protest necklaces" - Tampon boxes on a piece of yarn

- A boy wearing nothing but a paper bag on his head streaked through the school as students were arriving for the day


Mad bonus points go to the parents, who are calling out the school district on their draconian tactics.

Comments

[unclekage.livejournal.com]

Here's the problem: If a student had managed to sneak a gun into the school and shot the place up, the administrators would have been crucified for "not doing enough to protect the student body."

[unclekage.livejournal.com]

And if he was wearing a paper back on his head, how did they know it was a boy?

[giza.livejournal.com]

Because the rest of him was naked?

[antimon.livejournal.com]

metal detectors can detect guns, but not tampons.

and i think plastic guns with ice rounds are a little out there for the average 8th grader to find

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

Pssht. The Mythbusters proved that ice rounds don't work.

[antimon.livejournal.com]

guess I missed that one

[mach.livejournal.com]

From what the article this seems like it was a reaction to the general national worry about kids being shot in school. (And they mention backpacks hurting kid's backs but thats just an excuse) If thats all there is to their policy, then they need to rescind it.

Backpacks can hide more, true, but I've several friends who carry concealed every day and I honestly cannot tell, even knowing where to look. Metal detectors will catch more, but there are ways around those too.

I honestly don't think you can stop a shooting this way. I think a determined nutjob will find a way around this. Security gaurds are good. Metal detectors are probably good. I'd never have gotten around well without a bookbag. I never used a locker (takes too long, too easy to open and I got stuff stolen out of it the one week I tried to use it)

There must be more to this story. I'm surprised an administration would just up and stop allowing bookbags for no good reason.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

I like the suggestion (from, I think, one of the girls in that school) that the next guard who asks her that is going to be handed a bloody tampon.

[antimon.livejournal.com]

and she would be charged with assault, and possibly public health and biohazard issues.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good characterization of teenagers in general.

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

No backpacks? What the hell?

What's wrong with schools these days? Yes, over the years there have been a couple students that have freaked out and hurt others. But this is a vast exception, not the norm.

I'm tired of this "Okay, one person freaked out, YOU ARE NOW ALL SUSPECTED FELONS" attitude that's permeating society. I see it in airports too; the security line area looks like a freaking concentration camp. It's unnerving. I was surprised how much friendlier looking the same line was at a Canadian airport, so I'm thinking this is a US thing primarily.

GODS, people. WAKE THE HELL UP. There are always going to be a few nutcases out there. There have been since the beginning of time. Don't make EVERYONE suffer because of them. I feel so sorry for the kids going to school these days; they really shouldn't have to deal with that crap.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

Are things in this school really THAT bad to require so harsh measures? What of the underlying problems? it seems all the security is just a palative on the real issues.

[vesuvius.livejournal.com]

"Where's your homework?"
"In my backpack."

[triggur.livejournal.com]

Stupidity knows no bounds.

I bet a dollar the streaker kid winds up being labeled with "sex crime" for exposing himself.

Dammit, these people need to back the f*** off.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Nah, he's just being charged with a misdemeanor.

It's the school admins that are being stupid here, not the local cops.

[omnibahumut.livejournal.com]

Ah thats my local newspaper, but I have no idea where Grahamsville is XD

[antimon.livejournal.com]

Tampon embaresment on the side, hwo they hell are you supsoed to carry your 20 lb's of text books?

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Paint them red in solidarity for the people of Myanmar!

[mwalimu.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if I don't jump on the bandwagon here. If it turns out to be true and accurate as described, then I agree with the sentiments expressed here, but I'd caution everyone to make sure we're getting the whole story first.

I am reminded of the case about a year ago where a Snoqualomie, WA, high school student was severely injured in an incident at a high school football game, and a story broke that made it sound as if all anyone cared about was football and tradition. On further investigation it turned out the community and the school district had actually handled the situation much better and more sympathetically than the article had suggested, and the actions of a very few individuals trying to stir things up gave the reporter a launching point to produce a very slanted and inaccurate article about the incident.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Was this the kid with the cannon that exploded?

I'd sure love a link to the followup, because the original made the news all over Digg.

[mwalimu.livejournal.com]

Not sure if I can find a link, but yes, it was the incident where the cannon exploded and the kid nearly lost his leg.

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

That's going way too far.

[jlick.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit disappointed that parents don't seem as concerned about "ZOMG NO BACKPACKS ZT ZT ZT!" than they are that someone asked a girl if she was on the rag. Not that the latter is acceptable either, but it doesn't seem like any parent has balls enough to say that a no bag policy is complete bullshit. And I wish people would stop confusing the words security and insecurity when writing articles about such things.