Did your high school do this, or was mine just weird

[textbookcase]

I literally just remembered this today, and I can't imagine that it still happens in this day and age, but when we were in high school all of the girls could sit out one day a month from PE class by saying "first day" as in, first day of your period. Did other schools do this or was mine just super weird? Also we naturally tried to milk the shit out of it, calling first day like once a week and then challenging our (male) PE teacher, "well, wanna check?!" Gross.

[verycontrary247]

Super weird.

[textbookcase]

Feb 2, 2017 22:57:25 GMT -5 HRH Queen Dick I said:

What the

I know! I totally forgot about it and then remembered out of the blue today. I was like, "I can't imagine this is normal" lol

[cuddlyevil]

When we were had swimming we'd get out of gym during our periods.

[macmars45]

Super weird.

[kayl84]

Super weird. However our male gym teacher would catch on that when he sent us to the nurse and our PE class was during that time, that we were obviously going to see our friends. We had to change for 7th & 8th grade gym and had this horrid older woman who had 0 sympathy for anyone who had their period. I know mine was so bad I was home sick once a month with pain so bad I was throwing up.

[sessy]

Feb 2, 2017 23:07:15 GMT -5 cuddlyevil said:

When we were had swimming we'd get out of gym during our periods.

We didn't get out of P.E. for anything. As a freshman I was on the basketball team and had my period and P.E. was swimming that day. My mom didn't let me use tampons. 

The school rule was if you didn't participate in P.E. the day of a game you couldn't play, so to play I had to swim. A friend of mine had to call her mother to bring me a tampon and then she tried to give me a lesson in the school bathroom on how to use it. This still goes down as one of the worst days. 

[circa1978]

We were allowed to do that in middle and high school. I still remember sitting out with other girls who had cramps. We used to walk on each other's backs. It felt so amazing.

ETA: It didn't have to be the first day. I don't think anyone really took advantage of it. Lots of different gym teachers involved. 

[Deleted]

Wierd AND inappropriate. Having your period shouldn't be seen/taught to be a disability that you can't do things while you are on it.

[pantsparty]

[polarbearfans]

Feb 2, 2017 23:53:26 GMT -5 @heyitsme said:

Wierd AND inappropriate. Having your period shouldn't be seen/taught to be a disability that you can't do things while you are on it.

I usually had to take 2-3 days off school the pain was so bad. If I did manage to get to school movement needed to be limited. Not everyone has the same experience. I would get terrible headaches from the fluctuation in hormones.

[sweetchix]

Swim class? Yes. We'd say "regular".
Gym class? Nope.

[pumpkin]

I've never heard of this.

[game blouses]

Sort of. We'd just go up to our male PE teacher with our hand on our abdomens and a stricken look on our faces. Mostly on mile run days.

[fernweh]

Nope, never happened at my school

[knx9211]

Wtf? This is super weird. Although I can't actually confirm because if you played a sport you didn't have to take PE so I got out of it the entire way through high school.

[WOUNDTIGHT]

I went to an all girls school, so, no. That would not have been acceptable.

The whole "wanna check" makes me sick to my stomach. That's an awful exchange between a 13 year old and her male gym teacher.

[ECB]

Put me in the "weird" camp.

[lilafowler]

My high school gym teacher was a mean older woman. She would have laughed and told us to cut the shit if anyone tried that.

[Saint Monica]

That sounds like something out of the 1950s.

[wambam]

What? No. My gym teacher tried to fail me when I was hospitalized for two weeks. She didn't succeed, but she tried. This shit would not fly. Ever.

[flatlan]

Absolutely not.

[PatBenatar]

We were allowed to sit out of swimming for our period. It was weird, yet I fully took advantage of it

We still had to make up the classes though.

[zoomzoom]

Nope. When a student would ask to sit out for that reason, the female gym teacher would ask 'Well, how heavy is the flow?' So no one really wanted to use that as an excuse to skip. And we didn't have a swimming pool so that wasn't an issue.

[cabbagecabbage]

My gym teacher made me run the half mile while on crutches. I'm pretty sure he would have laughed if I wanted to get out of exercise for my period.

And I think it's kind of awful to tell young women to not exercise on their periods. I had very painful cycles and regular exercise was one of the only things that helped.

[jennistarr1]

So, I"m not sure. It sounds vaguely familiar and not weird to me so there must have been something...maybe it wasn't used that much. We definitely had female gym teachers though

[redshoejune]

No

[knx9211]

Also the second day of my period is always way worse than the first so this rule is doubly dumb.

[mrsd2006]

Super weird and I went to an all girls high school. But we didn't have a swimming pool or any male PE teachers

[Deleted]

Well we could just sit on the side and say we forgot our uniform and they'd let us get away with it sometimes.