During freshman P.E., students are expected to swim once a week for a 20 to 40-point assignment, and have to execute all of the skills they learned in swim for their final. This poses problems for female students who are on their period and do not feel comfortable swimming. Girls on their period are forced to use tampons, so they can swim to not get the repercussions of losing points. Tampons can be hard for young girls to use, as well as unsafe if not used correctly. There is a risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome, some studies have even found toxic metals in most common tampon brands (UC Berkeley School of Public Health) so there is a potential risk to girls’ reproductive organs.
This is not fair because girls have no choice but to use tampons even if they are not comfortable using them, so they do not lose points in their class. There are swim makeup days on Wednesday mornings, but this is still a challenge for students who take the bus or are driven by their parents and have difficulty controlling their schedule.
Years ago, P.E. classes used to swim every day for a whole trimester to complete their swimming requirements. During this time, girls got three passes that would excuse them from swimming without penalty.
Now students only swim once a week on their class’s designated day for the entire school year. With this change, P.E. passes were removed. Even though students do not swim every day, girls should have passes because they can still have their period on a swim day, and if they miss, they do not get any credit. I think the P.E. passes should come back for female students or an alternative is to have girls walk the track or around the pool deck so they are doing some exercise for credit or do exercise outside of school.
While it is true that girls could abuse passes just because they do not want to swim, it is not fair for that to ruin it for every girl, and if there are only three, then it is on the students to decide how and when is the best time for them to use it. It is unfair to make female students feel pressured to use tampons or not get credit or have to make it up when it is not a thing male students have to deal with and something girls cannot control.
