Athletes play sports to stay fit, be active, and gain skills that are used on a track, field, or court. Students who play a sport at school are asked to get a physical and sign the athletic form that has a list of questions, which were added to the “Females Only” sections of the athletic form. The questions were asked by the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA). Female athletes were asked about their most recent cycle or how many cycles they have had in the last year. Although the questions were deemed “optional,” they have raised many concerns.

After the Supreme’s Court decision about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which gave the constitutional right to an abortion, people are raising concerns about whether this new rule is making an impact on high school female athletes.

“With reproductive privacy and parental rights over children’s data top of mind, both abortion rights advocates and concerned parents have raised alarms about the questions and how they can be used,” The Palm Beach Post source states.

Women and girls already don’t like talking about subjects like these because they find them very uncomfortable.

Lynae Parker, sophomore, has heard about these questions,”If we want to be able to tell people about our menstrual cycle we should, we shouldn’t have to be asked, they shouldn’t be there,” Parker said.

She feels as if these questions are very personal and are questions that your school should not be asking.

“It just doesn’t make any sense because why do you have to know about our periods? If we’re just playing a sport, you shouldn’t have to worry about it,” Parker said.

Nobody wants their personal business about their period on documentation at their school.

Another big concern is having their athletic form digitized. This decision was made by our school district, when they recently moved the forms online and brought on a third- party company called “Aktivate.” Aktivate is designed to help athletic directors’ jobs easier, but many don’t think this app is appropriate for sharing information like this. Dr. Thresia Gambon, a pediatrician says,

“To have this digitized makes it a bigger concern, because it is private medical information”.

The media is the wrong place to store private information, especially about female athletes under the age.

Parents are worried about sharing this type of private information about their daughters on an online platform.

“I’m worried about her future, of course, in regards to, like, what are they doing with that?” Yvette Avila said.

Activate does share anonymous data which is unrelated to health for research purposes, the company also admits that they could be obligated to share private medical information with law enforcement.

Many parents are protective of their daughters and don’t want people having that kind of private information. Female athletes have already preferred not to share her their menstrual data with the district. Parents wanted answers so, the district held a meeting, and they felt as if the questions were “unnecessary” therefore, Palm Beach County School Board has petitioned for the questions to be removed from the athletic form.