Aimee Walker
A dad is campaigning for schools to list period pain as a legitimate reason for pupils to stay at home.
Marcus Alleyne, from Cornwall, launched the petition after watching his 13-year-old daughter ‘doubled over in pain’.
One time, it became so bad that the concerned dad rang the school and told them he didn’t want his daughter to attend that day.
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Recalling the incident, Alleyne told Sky News: “The school asked if it was due to period pains, and I said yes… and the school’s response was that it would be recorded as an unauthorised absence.
“We had the notion that if it was any other illness or condition it would have been documented as an illness rather than an unauthorised absence.”
Although the dad acknowledged that it’s normal for women to have pains during their menstrual cycles, he argued that it’s important we ‘nurture’ females.
In a chat with ITV, Alleyne explained: “We need to make significant changes not only to the institutions responsible for nurturing our young women and future female leaders but also need to educate the prehistoric mindsets of the policy creators and decision-makers.
“I think some people have been particularly encouraged that it’s a dad standing up for young women, but I think that’s only because of the way we’ve been fed – that it’s only a ‘woman’s problem,’ but it’s not, it’s a social problem.”
So far, the dad’s petition has accumulated over 30,000 signatures.
Many people who have signed the appeal have recalled their own struggles, and how their period cramps have affected their school and work lives.
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