Teenage girl claims teacher told her to ‘control her period’ after she was not allowed to go toilet

A teenage girl claims her teacher told her to “control her period“ after being refused to go to the toilet.

Maisie-Rae Adams, 14, said she was forced to storm out of the classroom after the remark but was refused entry to the class after she returned.

After trying to go back to the classroom just minutes later, the pupil was told she could not go back to class and she found her bag had been moved to another room.

The student claimed she had already been given three detentions for asking to go to the toilet while on her period at Rednock School in Dursley in Gloucester.

Ms Adams – who sees endometriosis run in her family – claims she has a heavy menstrual cycle which can see her experiencing up to three periods a month.

Ms Adams and her mother have been working on breaking the taboo which surrounds periods among schoolgirls since the ordeal.

Ms Adams said: “The class seemed to be in shock at what happened. I grabbed my pad and went to the toilet. When I tried to come back into the classroom the teacher told me that my bag was in another room and I could not go back to class.”

Kelly Adams, her 36-year-old mother, said: “When Maisie told me about it, I felt so angry that I could cry. She is a mini-me. With her confident and even her shyness, we are the same. I know how she feels.

“Maisie felt humiliated and embarrassed and it is horrible what happened to her. She should never have had a detention for needing to go to the toilet during her period.”

They are both campaigning to get rid of the stigma around periods and have proposed a pink wristband scheme so pupils can discretely tell teachers they are on their period.

Ms Adams, who is a mother-of-four, added: “The school have said to us in the meeting that they have a pink card policy that the girls can show the teacher. Maisie was not aware of this though.

“I want to be able to go into the school and talk about what happens to the girls. We need to make sure that the girls are not ashamed of what is happening to their bodies. We want to educate people so we can finally shake the taboo around periods.

“That way if a girl has an accident, another student can wrap a jumper around her rather than make her feel embarrassed.”

The school’s headteacher, David Alexander, said the school provides free tampons and sanitary towels for those who need them.

He said: “I can’t talk about individual students however I can talk about what we do. We do allow students to go to the toilet for issues relating to their period.

“In fact, we have ‘time out’ cards specifically for that purpose – we introduced to all girls in assemblies at the start of the year. Every girl had the opportunity to carry one.

“We are sensitive to the needs of all students but especially girls in this situation who are developing emotionally and physically. The situation is not as has been interpreted but I cannot go into details. Clearly, we will reflect on this so that we learn from it and improve.”

Previous research found 49 per cent of girls had missed a day of school due to periods and one in 10 women aged 14 to 21 is not able to afford period products.

Girls have reportedly used toilet roll, socks and newspapers to manage their periods.

Sanitary products in the UK are classed as a “luxury, non-essential item” and taxed at five per cent – with the average lifetime cost of sanitary products estimated at £4,800.

Polling company YouGov found almost half of British girls have witnessed their peers being bullied and shamed about their period. The study found nearly half of girls in Britain said boys tease or joke about periods.

Additional reporting by SWNS