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Student‑led Free Period Knox expands to 10 high schools; nurses supply products from district budget
Summary
Student organizers reported the Free Period Knox program now has representatives at 10 of 15 Knox County high schools; district health services provides menstrual products to schools and nurses order refills as needed.
Sophia, a student organizer, presented an update Jan. 9 on Free Period Knox, a student‑led initiative that places menstrual‑product baskets in high schools and staffs student representatives to restock them.
“Free Period Knox is a student led initiative whose purpose is to make free period products easily accessible to every girl in high schools across Knox County,” Sophia said. She reported that 10 of 15 county high schools currently have student reps and showed photos of school setups.
The nut graf: Students said schools are tailoring distribution methods to local needs (for example, some schools keep supplies with nurses and teachers rather than in bathrooms to limit misuse), and district health services confirmed the products are supplied through the nurses’ budget and reordered by school nurses.
Kaylee Reed, a Central High School representative, described how her site keeps product baskets in locations such as the nurse’s office and classrooms and coordinates restocking with the nurse rather than leaving supplies in bathrooms.
Sophia and Kaylee provided usage examples: at one large school a basket that holds roughly 35 items is emptied about once a week; a full district box contains about 250 products and one rep estimated that roughly 210 items were used at her school over a semester. Dr. Brown confirmed that Miss Wagner orders supplies from the district budget and nurses place replenishment requests like other health‑service items.
Board members commended the students’ leadership and asked how to expand representation to the remaining high schools and how to measure usage more precisely. Students asked for board help connecting with contacts at the remaining schools and said they will look for ways to collect usage data.
Ending: Board members asked the students to report back at the end of the school year with lessons learned, usage figures and recommendations for sustaining operations beyond student leaders’ graduations.
