Student initiative provides free hygiene products at Dr. L.G. Pinkston High School
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High school students ask the best questions.
We sometimes joke that high school students are the best complainers in the world, which is true, but if we listen closely, their complaints are really questions about the things that matter most to them.
Why doesn’t our cafeteria serve better food?
Why can’t I wear jeans to school?
Why aren’t there pads and tampons in our bathrooms?
This last “why?” came up during one of our journalism club sessions at Dr. L.G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas. Dallas Free Press staff and volunteers spend time there each week, as well as in South Dallas at the Legendary Lincoln High School and The Great James Madison High School. We listen to their complaints, and teach them how to ask stronger questions of the right people (reporting), where to find trustworthy information to reinforce their claims (research) and how to communicate what they learn to their peers and to decision-makers (storytelling).
It was Kaitlyn Torres, a recent Pinkston graduate, who posed the question. She surveyed her peers about their experiences, and talked to the school nurse about why young women have to travel all the way to the clinic for feminine hygiene products.
Meanwhile, current Pinkston senior Margarita Hernandez saw the same problem, and used her role as the District 6 Youth Commissioner to create a solution — a community closet at Pinkston stocked with free hygiene products for students.
What Hernandez didn’t know was that a group of young women over at Skyline High School had brought up the same concern, and convinced Dallas ISD officials to install and stock dispensers in women’s restrooms across the district. Somehow, though, that effort didn’t reach Pinkston, as Tanya Raghu reported in our recent story.
Which gives our journalism students yet another opportunity to ask: “Why?”
They’re asking important questions, and if they didn’t ask, Dallas ISD wouldn’t know that their efforts aren’t being implemented, or that it’s a problem to begin with.
Dallas Free Press has a racial equity policy that prioritizes community voices as the #firstvoice in our stories. This includes our high school students, whose voices matter, and whom we believe can and should be storytellers of their communities.
Are there future Dallas Free Press reporters and Dallas Documenters attending Lincoln, Madison and Pinkston high schools? We not only hope so — we’re working to ensure that future.
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Keri Mitchell has spent 20+ years as a community journalist, including 15 years dedicated to community and civic journalism at Dallas’ Advocate magazines. She launched Dallas Free Press in early 2020 with the belief that all neighborhoods deserve reporting and storytelling that values their community and holds leaders accountable.
Mitchell says she is energized by “knowing our work is making an impact — listening to people, telling their stories with strong narratives paired with compelling data that leads to change. I also love spending time in our neighborhoods and with our neighbors, learning from them and working to determine how journalism can be part of the solution to their challenges.”
Mitchell is proud to be the winner of multiple awards during her journalism career including: Finalist in Magazine Feature Reporting (2018) and Finalist in Magazine Investigative Reporting (2017) from Hugh Aynesworth Excellence in Journalism, Best Feature Story (2011) from Texas Community Newspaper Association and Best Magazine Feature (2011) from Dallas Bar Association Philbin Awards.
Areas of Expertise:
local government, education, civic issues, investigative and enterprise reporting
Location Expertise:
Dallas, Texas
Official Title:
Founder + executive director
Email Address:
keri@dallasfreepress.com
