Boston College: Students Can't Give Out Condoms

Attending a Catholic university and distributing condoms on campus apparently don't mix. Boston College is threatening disciplinary action against a group of students who are giving away more than 1,000 condoms a semester, the Boston Globe reports. BC says the student-run "Safe Sites" program is violating the college's religious mission. But the students have the ACLU on their side—it's threatening legal action against the college, and says BC is violating the law despite its religious affiliation. “We’re up to a fight, if they are up for a fight,” says an ACLU rep.

Safe Sites offers free contraceptives and information on safe sex from dorm rooms, and says it fills a vacuum since the university does not. The chair of BC Students for Sexual Health, which runs Safe Sites, says she's upset the college did not talk to them before sending letters threatening discipline, since the program has long operated openly. She calls the letters "war-mongering and threatening." Students are planning to continue distributing condoms and are meeting with administrators next month. (More Boston College stories.)