Stonehill College administrators don't want students distributing free condoms to each other... because they'd rather have students distribute free herpes and babies to each other by having unprotected sex! We all know how well vows of "chastity" work for priests, so who can expect college students to refrain, even at a Catholic school? Stonehill's backwards position on birth control is almost as absurd as some of the Globe comments in response to the situation, which include gems like "This girl should be more concerned about the spread of herpes by sharing cups playing beer-pong rather than the students not being coherent enough to use condoms." The dangers of beer pong aside, it's not about students being coherent enough to use condoms. It's about students having good access to condoms—which they don't, because the school took them away. Stonehill certainly has the right to enforce its policies on campus, but it does so at the risk of deterring students from attending the school. The fact that the school's already been driven to accept non-Catholic students (as in the case of the condom distributor) suggests that the market for a school with such strict policies may be about as small as the likelihood that college students will abstain from sex. Perhaps Stonehill will need to rethink its position on these issues if it wants to survive. more ›
