Connecticut high school students reportedly destroyed a tampon dispenser 20 minutes after it was installed in a boys bathroom last week.
Brookfield High School placed the box in the restroom on Jan. 24 in anticipation of a state law requiring boys bathrooms to carry menstrual products, according to CT Insider.
“A dispenser with menstrual products was installed in the boys bathroom near the [main office],” principal Marc Balanda emailed to students, according to CT Insider. “The installation was completed at 9:30. By 9:52, tampons were on the floor, the newly installed distribution box was ripped off the wall along with the masonry anchors and the distribution box itself was destroyed.”
The school will reportedly reinstall the dispenser. Balanda denounced the vandalism as disgusting and immature, according to CT Insider.
Brookfield Board of Education Chair Wendy Youngblood reportedly argues the message intended to be sent by the box’s destruction was obscured by its delivery.
“This is not an effective way of doing it,” Youngblood claimed, according to CT Insider. “Most importantly, it overruns the law and the rights of some people who need tampons.”
Brookfield Schools Superintendent John Barile reportedly insists he will focus on educating the perpetrators to address the incident.
“Brookfield High School is approaching this matter from a restorative perspective in that they are providing both education on the issue and work to remediate this issue with students,” Barile informed the New Haven Register.
Youngblood is reportedly advocating for a “civil,” “open” and “constructive” conversation regarding the impending law’s requirements, while Balanda is urging students to ask questions when they don’t understand something.
“Use your words to start a dialogue rather than using your hands to destroy something,” the principal reportedly said.
Alex Harris, who sits on the Ridgefield CT Pride advisory board, reportedly argues the destruction reflects “socialized misogyny” and “anti-trans hostility.”
“Just as racism is socialized and not innate, so too for misogyny and anti-LGBTQIAA+ bigotry,” Harris told the New Haven Register. “All such feelings arise from socialized fear of ‘otherness.’ There is no reason for teen boys to fear period products, the people who require them or the use of such products anywhere.”
The law, which takes effect in September, requires school boards to provide free menstrual products in boys and all-gender restrooms for third through twelfth graders.
Brookfield students have reportedly vandalized tampon dispensers in the school’s girls bathrooms before, as well as broken stall doors, removed soap dispensers and clogged “various objects” in the toilets.
“Having open dialogue in the school community can help everyone understand the law, ensure a school environment where everyone is respected, and all students are supported,” a spokesperson for the Connecticut State Department of Education told The National Desk (TND) in a statement.
