At Some Colleges, Students Must Keep Their Pro-Lif

At Some Colleges, Students Must Keep Their Pro-Life Opinions to Themselves


Take a recent incident at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month last October, Sinclair student Ethel Borel-Donohue waited until after her Probate Law I class was over (she is training to become a paralegal) to pass out around 15 flyers that discussed studies linking birth control and abortion to breast cancer.

Unfortunately, the climate for free speech on many campuses being what it is, you can imagine what happened next. According to Borel-Donohue, she was called before the chair of her program, county domestic relations judge Michael Brigner, and told that her flyers had offended someone in the class who had an abortion and that Borel-Donohue had no right to pass out any materials in the classroom, notwithstanding the fact that class was over. (I should note that when Borel-Donohue e-mailed Judge Brigner to confirm what he said in their conversation, he refused to do so — always a bad sign.)

If anything, Brigner was understating the power over expression that Sinclair Community College has unlawfully arrogated to itself. Its student code of conduct actually bans all distribution of literature at Sinclair except for “recognized student organizations after registering with the appropriate college official.” That’s right: you need the permission of school authorities to pass out pamphlets at Sinclair, and even that “privilege” is reserved only for groups who are “recognized” under the school’s rules.

There is simply no possible justification for a public college in the United States to ban all distribution of “unapproved” literature, everywhere on campus. And it’s hard to think of a reason that passing out literature in a classroom after class would be disruptive enough to justify a ban. After all, at most colleges, classrooms not in use for instruction are used for a variety of meetings and activities, and nobody is forced to stay around to receive the literature. Yet Sinclair has defiantly stood by its policies.

[Merlin99 (Premo)]

Originally Posted by EmptyTimCup

Would you be as shocked if she was passing out planned parenthood flyers and the school told her not to do it anymore?

[BOP]

Originally Posted by EmptyTimCup

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

Lemme think...seems like there was a movement about that very issue some time back...

Oh, yes, here it is: "The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others. In protests unprecedented at the time, students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom.

Background

In 1958, activist students organized SLATE, a campus political party, to promote the right of student groups to support off-campus issues. In the fall of 1964, student activists, some of whom had traveled with the Freedom Riders and worked to register African American voters in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer project, set up information tables on campus and were soliciting donations for civil rights causes. According to existing rules at the time, fundraising for political parties was limited exclusively to the Democratic and Republican school clubs. There was also a mandatory "loyalty oath" required of faculty, which had led to dismissals and ongoing controversy over academic freedom. On September 14, 1964, Dean Katherine Towle announced that existing University regulations prohibiting advocacy of political causes or candidates, outside political speakers, recruitment of members, and fundraising by student organizations at the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph Avenues would be "strictly enforced." (This strip was until then thought to be city property, not campus property.)"

[BOP]

Originally Posted by Merlin99

Would you be as shocked if she was passing out planned parenthood flyers and the school told her not to do it anymore?

Are you kidding? PP is almost certainly on the list of “recognized student organizations after registering with the appropriate college official.”

If you don't think so, you're fooling yourself.

[Merlin99 (Premo)]

Originally Posted by BOP

Are you kidding? PP is almost certainly on the list of “recognized student organizations after registering with the appropriate college official.”

If you don't think so, you're fooling yourself.

I didn't ask that though, and you don't know it to be a fact.

[Mongo53]

The lack of academic freedom and closed mindeness of U.S. College Campuses is well documented. No, its NOT a monolith, but the fact remains there are more than enough incidences and repeat incidences at major universities to show that is at least becoming systematic at many.

[PsyOps (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Merlin99

Would you be as shocked if she was passing out planned parenthood flyers and the school told her not to do it anymore?

Would you? Do you have an example of where a college student was told to stop passing out PP literature?

[PsyOps (Premo)]

An example where PP's efforts on a college campus were saluted:

Sex fair teaches students to protect all their body parts | Campus | Indiana Daily Student

“Wanna guess how many condoms I have?”

Planned Parenthood peer educator and master’s student Emily Forsyth asked passers-by this question Tuesday while holding a 5-gallon clear plastic jug filled to the brim with assorted condoms.

The prize for guessing the number of condoms was three dozen condoms...

Educators also handed out free condoms and sunscreen at both locations, fitting with the theme of “Protect All Your Body Parts this Spring Break.”

“We passed out 500 condoms,” said Emily Ebel-Orr, a nurse at Planned Parenthood who volunteered Tuesday...

“It’s obviously a good idea ... Especially throughout a college campus,” said senior Nicole Schutz, who attended Tuesday. “It’s great, and they’re obviously very knowledgeable.”...

Planned Parenthood sexuality educator Larisa Niles-Carnes organized the event and said she was satisfied with the student involvement and turn out.

[PsyOps (Premo)]

And from the PP website:

College Campus Groups - Planned Parenthood

Through Vox, college students across the country organize events on campus to raise public awareness about reproductive health and rights, educate young people at concerts about sexual health, work with and support their local Planned Parenthood health centers, and mobilize advocates of reproductive rights.

There's power in the voices of pro-choice students on your campus. When you organize those voices as a Vox group and work together to take action for reproductive health and rights, you have a force that's more powerful than if you work alone.

Scroll through the list of states PP has on-campus services. It's rather long. Yet, one pro-life group is forbidden to pass out literature?

And note the picture. It looks like a girl about the age of maybe 12? Hard to tell.

[vraiblonde]

Originally Posted by Merlin99

I didn't ask that though, and you don't know it to be a fact.

Planned Parenthood is always well advertised on college campuses. That is a fact.