All 15 of the districts that responded Friday to a CNN survey of 25 districts, including the Minneapolis and St. Paul districts in the state’s two most populous cities, said they comply with the law without providing tampons in traditional boys’ bathrooms.
Kevin Burns, a spokesperson for Mankato Area Public Schools, the district where Walz was a high school teacher before entering politics, told CNN that schools there are satisfying “the letter and intent of the statute,” which Burns called “very clear,” by providing menstrual products in “traditional female and gender-neutral restrooms” as well as school nurses’ offices, not boys’ bathrooms.
“St. Cloud Area Schools provides free period products in female-only restrooms, designated gender-neutral restrooms, and from school health-care offices. Period products are not provided in male-only designated restrooms,” said Tami DeLand, a spokesperson for that district in central Minnesota.
“We have provided free tampons and pads to all in ‘nongendered’ student restrooms and girls’ restrooms for grades 4 and up. They are also available from health staffers. We do not have menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms,” said Toya Stewart Downey, a spokesperson for the Robbinsdale district in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
“The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Public Schools provides menstrual products in girls’ bathrooms and gender-neutral bathrooms, not boys’ bathrooms,” said Tony Taschner, a spokesperson for the Twin Cities-area suburban district. “If we are aware of transgender students who need menstrual products and use the boys’ bathrooms, school staff would work with these students individually on a case-by-case basis.”
Scott Croonquist, executive director of Minnesota’s Association of Metropolitan School Districts, which says its 52 member districts educate more than half of public school students in the state, said Friday: “Our interpretation of the law is the same as what you have heard from the people you have talked to in school districts. The law does NOT require menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms.”
It’s certainly possible that some Minnesota schools do provide tampons in traditional multi-stall boys’ bathrooms; the state has more than 300 school districts in all, and CNN communicated with a small fraction of them this week. But Trump’s claim is that Walz signed a law that requires all Minnesota schools to provide tampons in their boys’ bathrooms — and that’s clearly wrong.
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