A dad has been praised for his response after a teacher asked him to "verify that she is menstruating", rather than simply taking her word for it. He explained how his teenage daughter returned home from school upset because she was made to participate in a PE lesson while in pain due to her period.
She was told her dad would need to "verify" this before allowing her to sit out the class. Outraged by the teacher's request, the dad wrote her a sarcastic letter asking exactly how he'd like her to "verify" this very personal information about his young daughter.
The letter, which has been shared on Reddit, starts: "Mrs. [NAME REMOVED]. My daughter informed me that I needed to write a note to you verifying that she is menstruating.
"My first thought was to simply say, 'yes, she is indeed quite difficult to deal with this week'. However, that sounds very chauvinistic. Then I thought a simple, 'yes, she is on her period' would suffice.
"However, additional moments of thought on the topic made me realise that I was merely taking her word for it.
"Her word was not good enough for PE class, so I’m not sure why her word through me as a mediator would have any more validity.
He went on to explain how he decided to "investigate" this situation to "determine If I could verify this phenomenon was occurring".
"I began by checking the trash cans in the bathroom," he added. "There are indeed used feminine hygiene products, but I live with three women so this seems inconclusive.
"Next I checked the dirty clothes hampers. Apparently feminine hygiene products do their job quite well because I could find no traces of a monthly visitor on anyone’s undergarments.
"While checking the hampers, I got caught by my wife. I had no recourse but to explain what I was doing and why.
"She is a feminist and has been yelling stuff about the patriarchy for about 45 minutes now. I keep hearing the word 'divorce' and the phrase 'moving out'."
The Indiana dad says he remembers his daughter asking him to make a special trip to the supermarket at 6am on Sunday morning to buy a pack of tampons - but he is unsure whether the teacher would deem this sufficient evidence.
When wrapping up his letter, he said: "I assume she was intending to use these for their designated purpose, but that is also merely circumstantial evidence at best.
"Short of holding her down and doing a visual inspection of her nether region, I’m not sure how I can verify this for you.
"Can we both just agree to take her word for it so I don’t have to go through a divorce and a CPS [child protection services] investigation? Thank you for your consideration."
Commenting on the dad's letter, one user said: "This is entirely how to call out the school for undermining the agency of a child.
"Whilst children may make excuses not to do X or Y, it is far more damaging to make them feel singled-out or that their word cannot be respected.
"What sort of children does this school think they are developing when they are creating an atmosphere of distrust, encouraging shame, implying that girls are faulty and all of the negatives that pollute social character?
"I applaud his restraint, if you could imagine that this was in any way restrained. Children should be encouraged to stick two middle fingers up at this 'authority' and immediately state, 'watch me walking'. This is how to dad."
Another user added: "Sometimes sarcasm is the key to getting through thick skulls, bravo!"
A third user said: "I knew where this was going and was horrified by it, but I was also laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
"This is the perfect way to handle a situation like this, ridicule the person to the point of embarrassment and they won't know how to respond."
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