PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A group of students sued Rhode Island College on Monday, accusing it of violating their free speech rights by taking down signs that read, "Keep Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries." The college's Women's Studies Organization posted the signs near a campus entrance last December amid complaints that some pharmacists had refused to fill prescriptions for contraceptives because of their personal beliefs.
A priest spotted the signs and alerted the president of the college, who ordered them taken down, the students said.
"The issue is this is a public university, and a public university can't abridge anyone's free speech rights—including the students," said Jennifer Azevedo, an ACLU attorney representing the students.
College officials said in a statement that they had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment. But they said the college encourages a "robust exchange of views and ideas."
After the signs were taken down, Rhode Island College president John Nazarian told the students they did not have the required approval to hang them, according to the students.
But the students said that they had been told they had the necessary clearance, and that the entrance area had been used over the years to display various messages.
An anti-abortion student group at the college, RIC 4 Life, issued a statement Monday calling the signs offensive and disrespectful.
