You have the power to build a more feminist space in your school

Not everyone gets to pick their school or how open-minded it is. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. If we work collectively as a team, we have the power to change things and make our schools more feminist and empathetic environments.

A FEMINIST Guide to Back to School

  • Schools contribute to the climate crisis from waste production to resource use.

  • All students should be allowed to dress in a manner that is comfortable to them, conducive to their learning, and in accordance with their gender identity.

  • Young people are voting, and the GOP can’t stop us.

  • Help stop book bans and protect our children’s freedom to learn.

  • The reversal of Roe v. Wade means that what students learn in sex ed is more important than ever.

  • Comprehensive consent education is crucial for developing a campus culture that opposes sexual violence.

  • Students, parents, educators, and communities all have a responsibility to address bullying in schools, online, and in their communities.

  • School readiness isn't just about having the right supplies, it's also about mental health. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, help is available.

  • Join the movement to destigmatize menstruation and make schools more accommodating for all students who experience it. No one should miss school because they can't afford the basic necessities they require.

Climate Crisis

Schools contribute to the climate crisis from waste production to resource use.

Overview

➜ Schools represent the third largest sector of commercial building energy usage in the United States. School building energy consumption costs U.S. school districts more than $8 billion per year and produces emissions equivalent to 18 coal-fired power plants.

➜ U.S. schools alone waste 530,000 tons of food annually, the World Wildlife Fund reports.

➜ 89% of school buses are diesel-powered, creating air pollution that harms the environment and student health.

How to take action

➜ Research the impact your campus may have on the environment.

➜ Advocate for schools to turn off lights and heating and cooling systems on nights, weekends, and holidays.

➜ Encourage your school administration to use to solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and waste reduction programs like recycling and composting.

➜ Promote alternative transportation like walking, biking, public transport, and carpooling.

➜ Support organizations like @intersectionalenvironmentalist, @sunrisemvmt, and @atmos.

Dress Codes

All students should be allowed to dress in a manner that is comfortable to them, conducive to their learning, and in accordance with their gender identity.

Overview

➜ Nearly 20% of public schools in the 2019-2020 school year required students to wear a uniform and 44% enforced a "strict" dress code.

➜ Dress codes often target girls, students of color and LGBTQ+ youth, and students living in poverty, upholding harmful gender and racial norms. Examples could include prohibiting hijabs, natural Black hairstyles, or long hair for boys.

How to take action

➜ Get informed about your rights.

➜ Title VI prohibits federally funded schools (whether public or private) from discriminating based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.

  • If your school has a policy that prevents Indigenous students from wearing tribal regalia, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

➜ Help end hair discrimination in schools by signing this petition and supporting the CROWN Act.

➜ If your school or workplace maintains dress and grooming policies that treat people differently based on gender stereotypes, let the ACLU know.

Voting Access

Young people are voting, and the GOP can’t stop us.

Overview

➜ Republican lawmakers in a number of states have been trying to enact new obstacles (such as eliminating polling places on college campuses) to voting for college students.

➜ 36 states currently have some form of in-person voter ID law in place, but the list of acceptable IDs varies substantially from state to state. Twelve states —Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas— do not allow the use of some student IDs as voter ID.

How to take action

➜ Register to vote & check your registration status by texting ‘FEMINIST’ to 56005.

➜ Learn your state’s voting registration deadlines and laws at vote.gov.

➜ Intersectional feminist voters arrive at the polls or vote by mail with a plan. Build your custom ballot with Vote Pro Choice.

➜ Know your voting rights and track voting legislation.

➜ Does your state require voter ID? Do they accept a student ID? Find out here.

➜ Explore this guide to learn how to ‘Vote like an Intersectional Feminist’.

Book Bans

Help stop book bans and protect our children’s freedom to learn.

Overview

➜ Books are under attack in the United States. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. (PEN America)

➜ More books are being banned than ever before, despite over 70% of parents oppose book banning. Over 4,200 unique book titles were targeted for censorship in US schools and libraries in 2023.

➜ Additionally, censorship of themes centered on race, history, sexual orientation and gender is expanding.

➜ New state laws are censoring ideas and materials in public too, an extension of the book banning movement.

➜ Book bans disproportionately impact students from systemically marginalized backgrounds such as LGBTQ+ students, low-income students, students with disabilities, and students of color.

How to take action

➜ Read GLAAD’s Guide to Battling Book and School Censorship for Students, Parents, and School Staff.

➜ Email your school board supporting free education if they propose a book ban

➜ Join Campaign for Our Shared Future in the fight to protect public education in communities around the country.

➜ Vote in school board elections with help from this guide.

➜ Report a book ban to PEN America.

➜ View Let America Read’s list of organizations to take action with.

Sex Education

The reversal of Roe v. Wade means that what students learn in sex ed is more important than ever.

Overview

➜ 35 states require schools to emphasize the importance of abstinence when sex education or HIV/STI instruction is provided and 17 states provide abstinence-only sex education. (SEICUS)

➜ Among the 10 states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy among girls 15-19 years old, five are states without mandated sex education: Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Arkansas.

➜ Sexually Transmitted infections among adolescents and young adults have been rapidly increasing among young people in recent years. In the United States, an estimated half of the 20 million new STIs that occur each year affect people aged 15–24, even though they make up only a quarter of the sexually active population. (CDC)

➜ Proposals to restrict sex ed coincide with abortion restrictions at the national and state levels.

➜ There is a growing movement to stop educators (in and out of the classroom) from discussing gender and sexual orientation. Women’s and gynecological health information is being censored on social media.

How to take action

➜ Review your state’s current sex education laws and policies here. The SIECUS State Profiles provides an in-depth and up-to-date look at the state of sex education in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the outer United States territories and associated states.

➜ Use our abortion action toolkit to learn more about the state of abortion rights in the US and around the world and fight back to protect abortion access across the country.

➜ Get educated with Planned Parenthood’s free and inclusive sex ed resource for students, teachers, parents, and caregivers.

➜ Read FOLX’s LGBTQ+ Safer Sex Guide.

➜ Explore RAINN's Spanish Language Resource Toolkit.

Consent

Comprehensive consent education is crucial for developing a campus culture that opposes sexual violence.

Overview

➜ Over 50% of all campus sexual assaults occur between the start of school and Thanksgiving break. Black, indigenous, and queer young people continue to be the most impacted by sexual violence.

➜ In the last two years, consent education policy has failed in upwards of 10 states and that is directly because of homophobia and the patriarchy.

➜ Consent education does not fail young people equally; POC and queer young people are disproportionately affected.

How to take action

➜ Review the consent laws in your state.

➜ Learn about your school’s prevention efforts and resources for survivors.

➜ Educate others on consent.

➜ Become aware of your legal rights as a student after an assault.

➜ Join the movement to make consent education more accessible, actionable, and relatable to young people.

➜ 💓 To every survivor, it wasn’t your fault, and it never will be. We believe you, we support you, and you are not alone. Survivor resources can be found in our Mental Health Toolkit.

Bullying

Students, parents, educators, and communities all have a responsibility to address bullying in schools, online, and in their communities.

Overview

➜ In the U.S., 1 in 5 students ages 12-18 experienced bullying during the school year and cyberbullying is on the rise.

➜ Students who experience bullying are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and dropping out of school. (CDC)

➜ There is no federal law specifically about bullying. The laws vary by state, county, and district.

How to take action

➜ If you're being bullied, let someone know. Confide in a trusted adult – a teacher, counselor, or parent; your voice matters. Remember, you're not alone in this.

➜ If you see someone being bullied, speak up. More than half of bullying situations stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied. (National Bullying Prevention Center)

➜ Familiarize yourself with your school district and state’s bullying policies. All states have anti-bullying legislation. When bullying is also harassment and happens in the school context, schools have a legal obligation to respond to it according to federal laws.

➜ Report cyberbullying and online abuse.

➜ For more information, tips, and tools for individuals dealing with bullying, visit StopBullying.gov, PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center, Stomp Out Bullying.

Mental Health

School readiness isn't just about having the right supplies, it's also about mental health. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, help is available.

Overview

➜ Around 20% of the world's children and adolescents are experiencing a mental health condition, with suicide being the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. (WHO)

➜ One in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental health conditions begin by age 14. (NAMI)

➜ 50% of LGBTQ+ young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it. (The Trevor Project)

➜ The number of students seeking help at campus counseling centers increased by almost 40% between 2009 and 2015 (CCMH Annual Report, 2015).

How to take action

➜ Look into your campus’ mental health resources through the school’s counseling or wellness center.

➜ Explore crisis support resources, organizations for BIPOC communities, resources for survivors of sexual violence, and mental health advocates to follow and support via our Mental Health Toolkit.

➜ Learn to support someone struggling with their mental health through this online course created by Jack.org in partnership with Born This Way Foundation.

➜ Support your friends using Active Minds’ V.A.RⓇ  conversation model.

➜ Visit Gurls Talk’s list of UK and US-based mental health hotlines.

➜ Check out the Jed Foundation’s 2024 Back-to-School Resource Hub for high school and college students.

➜ Take a Mental Health First Aid course and learn to identify, understand, and respond to mental health and substance use challenges.

Period Care

Join the movement to destigmatize menstruation 
and make schools more accommodating for all students who experience it. No one should miss school 
because they can't afford the basic necessities they require.

Overview

➜ Data from the World Bank reports that at least 500 million women and girls worldwide do not have access to the menstrual management services they require. Meanwhile, 1.25 billion women and girls do not have access to a safe, private toilet, and 526 million do not have access to a toilet at all.

➜ Period stigma and a lack of menstrual health education have been root causes of systemic issues impacting students, families, and policies in the United States.

➜ Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. students who menstruate struggle to afford period products and 1 in 5 American girls have missed school due to lack of access to menstrual products.

➜ Additionally, 20 states charge sales tax on period products (as of June 20, 2023) (Source: PERIOD & The Alliance for Period Supplies)

How to take action

➜ Combat shame and stigma by speaking openly about periods.

➜ Educate people about period poverty. Inclusive education about menstrual health is a tool for shifting culture about periods.

➜ Demand access to menstrual products in restrooms — menstrual products are no less important than toilet paper. Reach out to PERIOD at policy@period.org for ways to advocate locally.

➜ Advocate for funding to make period products available for free in all schools. See here for the state of period products in schools by state.

➜ Follow these 9 leaders fighting period poverty and stigma around the world.

This toolkit was last updated 8/12/24