Pexels | Polina Zimmerman

Teacher Blindsided After Colleague Calls His Tampon Basket 'Inappropriate'

Published September 20, 2021

While you're not likely to find someone who considers a period a fun experience, we're probably living in the best times so far to have them.

It wasn't so long ago that parents seemed to dread talking about them and you had to get lucky to find any help for them at school, but we're now living in a time when some states have actual laws requiring schools to make period resources available.

But even where this isn't true, it's become more common for teachers to do so anyway to ensure their students have their periods as comfortably as possible.

Yet just as not every parent in the world seems to fully accept that periods are a natural part of life, it seems there are still some places where this thoughtful move can cause some unexpected friction.

When one young teacher began the school year this time around, he soon felt compelled to do something helpful for his students.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment via YouTube

As he explained in a Reddit post, he's recently noticed that some of his female students have had difficulties finding tampons and pads when they need them the most.

Since he has two daughters, he figured the solution to this was a simple as the one he puts in place at home.

So he bought a bunch of tampons and pads and put them in a small basket in his classroom.

Pexels | Polina Zimmerman

And it's something the students have been responding well to. Enough so, in fact, that he finds himself regularly needing to replace the products.

In his words, "Nobody says anything and overall it's helpful for our students."

As much as they like the basket, though, it's apparently drawn the ire of his next-door colleague named Susan.

DreamWorks Home Entertainment via YouTube

As the teacher put it, "She thinks it's inappropriate that I have that for my female students and she told me it's weird because I'm a male."

Since periods are a natural part of life and this seemed like a handy way to deal with them, the man struggled to see what was weird about this.

So he posed his question to a certain Reddit community in case he missed something.

But of course, nobody else could understand what her problem was either and commended him for his gesture.

As one user said, "I think it is really sweet. And it gives them the message that it is totally normal and nothing to be hidden and ashamed of. I wish you would have been one of my teachers. Every time I saw that basket, I would have felt love and acceptance pouring out of it."

Another figured that the only person making the situation weird was Susan, saying, "You are normalizing treating women's needs as an ordinary part of life. Susan is the one behaving inappropriately - by trying to create a problem where none exists."

I think he'll be OK.

h/t: Reddit | Lowthrowaway22

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