(RNS) An effort by Boston College administrators to shut down a student-run program to distribute condoms and provide information on safe sex could end up in court, according to Boston media outlets.
School officials sent a letter this month threatening disciplinary action to students behind “Safe Sites,” the network of dorm rooms serving as outlets for condoms, lubricants and other material.
The students were told the effort conflicts with the “responsibility to protect the values and traditions of Boston College as a Jesuit, Catholic institution.”
The letter was signed by Dean of Students Paul Chebator and George Arey, director of residence life.
“The students have repeatedly ignored warnings,” BC spokesman Jack Dunn told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 on Wednesday (March 27). “The dean sent the letter to the students saying their actions were incongruent with the Jesuit Catholic values of Boston College and asked them to cease in this activity.”
ACLU attorney Sarah Wunsch told WBZ the group may take legal action if the school presses the issue.
“Jack Dunn needs to think about the state’s civil rights act and its applicability to private parties,” Wunsch said. “They should not be threatening students with disciplinary action.”
Dunn, however, was unmoved.
“I don’t think the ACLU has standing in this matter,” he told the radio station. “As a private institution we reserve the right to set our policies and to hold our students accountable to those policies.”
Boston.com reports that Safe Sites are sponsored by the Boston College Students for Sexual Health, a group that works to improve sexual health education and resources. BCSSH is not recognized by the university.
Dunn told Boston.com that the students know the public distribution of condoms violates the university’s policies and values.
“As a Jesuit, Catholic university, there are certain Catholic commitments that Boston College is called to uphold. We ask our students to respect these commitments, particularly as they pertain to Catholic social teaching on the sanctity of life,” Dunn said in a statement.
“We recognize that, as a reflection of society at large, many students do not agree with the Church’s position on these issues. However, we ask those who do not agree to be respectful of our position, and circumspect in their private affairs,” the statement said.
Lizzie Jekanowski, chair of BCSSH, told Boston.com that the Safe Sites program fills a need that the university is not providing to its student body. Students who go to any of the 18 locations — all but one are in dorms — can pick up free male and female condoms, lubricant, and pamphlets about sexual health.
Jekanowski told Boston.com the administration has been aware of these sites for at least two years and never taken action. She said she was upset that BC officials did not reach out to BCSSH members before issuing the threatening letters.
“We’ve had a very open relationship and it’s been very positive,” she said. “This letter was very warmongering and threatening.”
(John Bacon writes for USA Today.)
9 Comments
Donald Kosloff
College students know enough that they don’t need an organized nanny to hold their hands (or something) for such activities. It is pathetic that the ACLU thinks that they need to involve themselves in trashing people’s religious beliefs.
JEB
The anti-American ACLU has ZERO SAY over private property and how they run it!
FarmerTom
Jeb is half right. At a private school, such as BC, student “rights” are much more restrictable than they would be at a public university.
Boston College, ACLU clash over condom giveaway – Religion News Service | SWEEPSTAKES-CONTESTS-GIVEAWAYS.COM
[...] Boston College, ACLU clash over condom giveawayReligion News ServiceBoston College, ACLU clash over condom giveaway. John Bacon / USA Today | Mar 28, 2013 | 3 Comments. (RNS) An effort by Boston College administrators to shut down a student-run program to distribute condoms and provide information on safe sex …Boston College threatens action in condom giveawayDetroit Free Press [...]
Caroline
I have always admired the catholic values and staunch views depicting idealism in matters of moral choices. However in the real world of human imperfection infidelity exist within marriage. How should a spouse protect herself/himself against diseases to which her/his partner may expose her/him?
Please send the reply to my email.
rtjl
It’s a sad commentary when married people feel the need to use condoms to protect themselves from unfaithful spouses. It’s an even sadder commentary when a society accepts as a normal state of affairs that spouses should live with that degree of fear and suspicion towards one another. Perhaps people with unfaithful partners, especially regularly unfaithful partners, should protect themselves by separating from their partners.
Will
It’s not limited to unfaithful people, plenty of married people use a variety of birth control methods because they don’t want kids (or more kids) and abortion is expensive and time consuming. Redundant birth control (i.e. pills + condoms) is more effective than one method at a time.
gilhcan
I guess when you’re celibate and only have sex with young guys and little boys, you don’t need condoms. But they do prevent STDs.
And if you’re forced to be committed to celibacy, why do you have anything to say about condoms or any other sexual practices? You’re kind of out of your field.
Caroline
I think in this forum we should respectfully differ by stating our opinion about the matter at hand. Everyone knows that the church has been charged with sexual abuse against children, however we need to respect the letter of the law. Let not a sector of the defaulters cause us to lose sight of what this discussion is really about. I think it is about whether or not the university as a private institution has the right to forbid the distribution of condoms on their campuses. What I hope to see evolving out of this discussion is a debate as to why the group giving away the condoms feel that it is more expedient to distribute it within the hallways of the Jesuit institution. What would be the impact of not using the Jesuit campus to distribute the condoms etc?