by Joseph Weber
Florida schools will no longer ask student-athletes to share their menstrual histories to play high school sports, after an effort to make the optional questions mandatory.
The state’s High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted 14-2 Thursday in an emergency session to adopt a proposal to remove the questions from a pre-participation physical evaluation form, according to NBC News.
The action follows months of opposition from parents, physicians and advocates about the questions.
Until now, the form included five optional questions about a student-athlete’s menstrual history, NBC also reports.
The issue became a flash point after the athletic association’s sports medicine committee reportedly recommended the questions become mandatory.
Another issue reportedly was that Palm Beach County students could submit the form electronically, raising privacy concerns.
Opponents of the questions say the answers to them could also become a factor in whether student-athletes can play on a team other than the one that matches their gender at birth.
However, the newly adopted form will still require student-athletes to answer questions about their medical, surgical and emotional histories, with the the information being kept by a health care provider, parent or guardian.
And the section about their medical eligibility to play sports will completed by them, their parent or guardian, then submitted to the school.
The new rules follow American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines, which state that a student-athlete’s medical eligibility form is the only one needs to be shared with schools.
At least 44 states currently require or optionally ask student-athletes about their menstruation.
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Joseph Weber comes to JusttheNews after covering national politics for Fox News since 2011.
Photo “Woman Filling Out Form” by Alex Green.
