Girls are reportedly bleeding through their pants because of a charter school's 'dehumanizing' bathroom policy

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• Noble Charter Schools, a network of schools in the Chicago area, has strict behavioral and dress-code policies, according to an NPR affiliate.
• The policies are so strict that students don't have enough time to go to the bathroom and regularly bleed through their pants when they have their period, one teen told an NPR reporter.
• Instead of changing the bathroom policy, the school has changed its dress code so that teens have permission to tie sweatshirts around their waist in the event of stains.
• In a statement to INSIDER a representative for the school denied the claims.

Update: May 1, 2018:

In a statement provided to INSIDER on Tuesday, Constance Jones Brewer , the principal of Noble Network of Charter Schools, denied the claims from NPR's article.

"Noble absolutely accommodates our students during menstruation, including bathroom trips whenever the student needs one. This is the same accommodation as high schools everywhere, and I would tolerate nothing less from my organization."

Brewer addressed the claims that students were bleeding through their pants while menstruating.

"We also know that stains are still not 100% preventable for factors that are private to each student, but when they happen, our schools provide supportive solutions as quickly as possible," Brewer wrote. "This includes, at the student's discretion, the option to borrow clean uniform items from the main office, or the choice to wear a covering, at which point staff are notified that the student is not out of dress code and should be accommodated accordingly."

At Noble Charter Schools, a network of schools in the Chicago area, behavioral and dress-code policies are so strict that students are reportedly bleeding through their pants when menstruating because they don't have enough time or opportunities to use the bathroom, according to an NPR affiliate.

"We have [bathroom] escorts and they rarely come so we end up walking out [of class] and that gets us in trouble," one student, whose name was not given, told an NPR reporter. "But who wants to walk around knowing there's blood on them? It can still stain the seats. They just need to be more understanding."

Instead of changing the policy to give students more opportunities use the restroom, the school offers dress-code exemptions to students who have stained their pants, allowing them to tie a sweatshirt around their waist without punishment, NPR reports. An email is reportedly sent to all staff members, listing the names of students who have been given exemptions so they won't be issued demerits for dressing out of uniform.

According to a previous story on the Noble Charter Schools published by NPR, students can be given between one to four demerits for violating the school's uniform dress code. A violation that can be fixed immediately, like an untucked shirt, would garner a student one demerit if they tuck it in after being warned. If they don't tuck the shirt, they are given four demerits, according to the school's handbook. Other dress-code violations, which can't be fixed immediately, like not wearing the school-mandated black belt, costs a student four demerits.

If a student gets four demerits in a two-week period, they must attend a two- or three-hour detention. If a student earns 13 or more detention in a school year, they are required to attend a "character development" class that, until this year, cost students $140 out of pocket, according to NPR.

Teachers described the policies to NPR as "dehumanizing."

But some are working to enact change. Last year, in response to issues with staining, two teachers at Pritzker College Prep, a Noble school, helped female students successfully change the campus uniform to black pants from khaki.

Students considered it a victory. "I feel like this change will benefit everyone. Although the main cause was the issue of periods [causing girls to bleed through their pants], beige khakis are very easily stained [from other issues], so [black pants] will help diminish the visibility of stains," a senior Alva Chavez told the school's newspaper.

The change was also based on findings that 58% of students at Pritzker didn't have laundry machines available at home, which complicated the process of cleaning the light-colored pants.

So far, this has only been introduced at the Pritzker campus, NPR reports.

Students and teachers remain concerned that the school system's administration doesn't understand the students, according to NPR.

"One student says it best, 'When you treat us like animals, what do you think we are going to act like?'" a teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told NPR.

After the initial story was published, Constance Jones Brewer, the president of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, sent an email to staff, calling parts of the report "exaggerated or plainly false."

Brewer wrote: "I've seen how our leaders and staff continue to break new ground, push each other's thinking, and improve the Noble experience every year. So, while I acknowledge our imperfections, I also celebrate our willingness and flexibility to hold each other accountable and get better. And I just don't see the Noble that I know and love reflected in this article."

Read Brewer's full statement below:

We at Noble are used to being publicly attacked due to the unfortunate political and emotional debate around charter schools, even as we send 90 percent of our student population, overwhelmingly students of color, to college every year. It breaks my heart to spend time addressing these debates, but I also know it’s necessary in order to protect the people who are giving their all to our students and families. This latest article from the Springfield, IL NPR affiliate is completely beyond the pale. It takes one anecdote from among our 12,000 students and 10,000 alumni to allege a school policy that simply doesn't exist.

Let me be clear - Noble absolutely accommodates our students during menstruation, including bathroom trips whenever the student needs one. This is the same accommodation as high schools everywhere, and I would tolerate nothing less from my organization. We love our students and it is our sacred responsibility to ensure their health and safety. We also know that stains are still not 100% preventable for factors that are private to each student, but when they happen, our schools provide supportive solutions as quickly as possible. This includes, at the student's discretion, the option to borrow clean uniform items from the main office, or the choice to wear a covering, at which point staff are notified that the student is not out of dress code and should be accommodated accordingly.

To allege that Noble does anything other than protect the health and hygiene of its students - or to suggest that it allows or enables their humiliation - runs counter to everything we stand for and is an affront to our teachers who work so hard for our students every single day. We are disappointed in the inaccurate original reporting, and shocked that a respected media platform would spread such a falsehood without its own fact-checking. It may be that slandering people and organizations is the new normal, but we have established high standards for our students, teachers and administrators. Their record of success cannot be undone by irresponsible charges with no basis in fact.

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