MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — High school teaches you a lot.

Sometimes, it teaches you what’s missing.

At Milwaukee High School of the Arts, two juniors — Adasia Ward and Ingrid Meozer — learned that lesson too well.

The respective secretary and president of the student council noticed a basic human need wasn’t being met, and at a school that’s majority girls, they knew that needed to be fixed.

“Female hygiene products,” Ward said. “I think that all student council could relate to feeling embarrassed at school.”

So they began speaking with teachers and other leaders in charge to start a pilot program in their school’s bathrooms, stocking a supply box with free tampons, pads, and liners.

“We wanted something that was accessible,” Ward said. “There are girls here that don’t feel comfortable going to a male teacher and being like 'Hey, can I get a sanitary product' just because of their religion.”

This was back in 2024.

Since then, the pilot program became so successful that the two learned it would be expanding to other middle and high schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools district.

“We recognized very early on that this can be a taboo subject for some people and not everybody feels as comfortable discussing it as other people,” Meozer said. “Just such an amazing feeling to know that this is something that’s going to stick around longer than us and something that’s going to be so helpful to so many people.”

Now they’re working to help bridge the accessibility gap while breaking down stigma surrounding menstrual products.

“It’s a normal thing and that there’s no shame in it whatsoever,” Meozer said. “The student council is taking initiative, and we are going to create a group of students who will be able to regularly restock the products so there’s always going to be products in the stations.”

Some of the items up next on their student council agenda are encouraging kids to stay in school and discouraging vaping.

“Finally seeing something we worked really hard for and strived so hard to get was finally paying off, I felt very proud,” Ward said. “It felt like all the time we spent planning and finding out how we wanted to do this really did pay off for other kids, so they don’t have to work as hard as we did.”

Both agreed they hope others are inspired by their efforts.

“It’s the small things that will eventually get us to our end goal,” Meozer said. “It’s absolutely something that should be adapted into every district across America and outside of America.”