Boston College Wants Student-Led Campus Condom Distribution Ended

Boston College is threatening disciplinary action against a group of students who distribute condoms out of their dorm rooms, but the American Civil Liberties Union says the university is violating student rights and is prepared to bring legal action.

BC officials sent a letter on March 15 demanding an end to student-run Safe Sites, a network of dorm rooms and other locations where free contraceptives and safe-sex information are available. The university says the distribution of condoms is a violation of the school's Roman Catholic values.

Elizabeth Jekanowski, chairwoman of BC Students for Sexual Health, says threats of disciplinary action won't stop them from distributing condoms.

"There is such an absence of resources here, and so we're really fulfilling an invaluable need," she said.

An attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts says BC may be breaking the law.

"Boston College has the right to express its views and try to persuade students of the rightness of their opposition to contraception," said ACLU attorney Sarah Wunsch, "but I don't think they get to impose that view on what students in this case are doing."

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom