Reacting to recent revelations of inadequate feminine hygiene infrastructure at Islander Middle School, the Mercer Island School District is introducing an innovative “Don’t Drop A Dime” program in collaboration with the Postmates on-demand delivery service.
“The sudden awareness of leaks in our ability to meet the basic needs of our middle school students caught us totally unprepared,” said Flo F. Menses, MISD’s Senior Director of Health and Hygiene Programs. “We’ve heard about it loud and clear from students, parents, and the Internet. From now on, whenever one of our bathrooms is out of supplies, we ask students not to ‘drop a dime’ on us.”
As part of this new program, IMS and Mercer Island High School are rolling out a DontDropADime smartphone app, which students can use to request personal hygiene supplies whenever their nearest school bathroom is out of stock. District officials say that thanks to the partnership with Postmates, they can guarantee delivery in thirty minutes or less. The service is free, but tipping is encouraged.
Not all Islanders are happy about the changes. “We depend on the dimes collected from the girls’ bathrooms to pay for equipment upgrades for the varsity football team,” said MIHS parent Ty Tilnein, “but thanks to all this political correctness, that steady stream of funds is about to be stopped.”
The school district is also enlisting IMS Health teachers to lead a series of preparedness seminars for faculty and staff. “While many MISD employees tell us that they are following their own self-directed curricula on human anatomy, we don’t know how much relevant factual information they’re getting from late-night viewing of Internet videos,” said Menses, adding, “It’s embarrassing when the eighth graders are the most knowledgeable people in the school.”