STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did the state of Minnesota enact a policy that put tampons in "10 year old boys bathrooms" while Tim Walz was governor? No, that's not true: The Minnesota statute does not mention boys-only bathrooms, and school districts said free menstrual products go to female-only and designated gender-neutral bathrooms. The state Department of Education said they haven't told any schools to put tampons in boys' bathrooms. Lead Stories found no evidence confirming the claim about Walz, who is running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
A version of the claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on August 21, 2024. It said:
Walz put tampons in 10 year old boys bathrooms.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 22 14:53:50 2024 UTC)
The post provided no evidence to substantiate its claim.
Minnesota statute 121A.212 on free menstrual products in schools (archived here) does not call for placing such items in "boys' bathrooms." Instead, it says:
The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.
In practice, that means schools can decide where to place menstrual products "to comply with legislation," a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) told Lead Stories via email on August 23, 2024, adding:
MDE has not directed any schools to provide these products in boys' bathrooms.
The law went into effect on January 1, 2024. When asked about the existence of the data suggesting that some schools placed menstrual products in boys' bathrooms, Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators Deb Henton (archived here) told Lead Stories via email on August 22, 2024:
I do not have the data you are requesting.
While it is nearly impossible to manually check where each of over 2,000 public schools in Minnesota (archived here) put free period products, Lead Stories found no evidence to support the claim that is the focus of this fact check.
A search across Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) showed numerous news articles addressing misleading aspects of the statements about the policy in question.
A New York Times report (archived here) cited Harris' campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt, who described the Minnesota law as "a bipartisan, common-sense policy to provide women and girls with basic health care products."
The same New York Times article also quoted a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Education who said that the law does not require the agency to track the implementation plans developed by school districts.
The account that posted the claim on X has a long history of making false or misleading statements. However, it was not the first one to publish it this time.
The claim appears to have originated from a Fox News segment aired on August 6, 2024, during which host Jesse Watters said (at the 5:17 mark): "Waltz forced schools to stock tampons in boys' bathrooms -- tampons in the fourth-grade boys' bathrooms!"
Watters did not cite specific schools or school districts as examples or provide other evidence to support his claim.
That segment was aired the day then-presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris named Walz as a running mate (archived here).
Lead Stories contacted the Minnesota Department of Education, the state's Association of School Administrators, the bill's sponsors and period products advocacy groups for additional comments. If we receive responses, this fact check will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims mentioning Walz can be found here. Stories about the 2024 U.S. presidential election are here.
Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including Verify This, PolitiFact and CNN Facts First.
Updates:
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2024-08-23T21:30:30Z 2024-08-23T21:30:30Z Adds quotes from the Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota Association of School Administrators.
