R.I. College to pay $5,000 to settle protest sign suit
PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island College will pay $5,000 to a women's group that filed a lawsuit contending that its free speech rights were violated when campus police removed signs that said, "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries."
Under a settlement unveiled yesterday, the public college also has made changes to its signs policy to clarify what can be posted on campus.
The state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court on the group's behalf. The college will pay the students' legal fees.
"College is a place for the free exchange of ideas, and I can now be proud to say I attend a school which allows the free speech rights that are essential to a learning community," Jennifer Magaw, the president of the Women's Studies Organization, said in a statement.
The student group posted a series of signs near the campus entrance in December 2005 to promote women's reproductive rights.
A Roman Catholic priest on campus for a Mass expressed concern about the signs to the college president, who directed police to take them down.
Rhode Island College spokeswoman Jane Fusco said the signs were removed because they were not associated with a specific event or program. She also said they were placed in an area of campus where signs were generally prohibited. But the lawsuit says that policy was applied unevenly since the same location had been used over the years for various signs and messages.
"The issue was never about free speech," Fusco said. "It was a miscommunication of campus policy that has since been clarified."
Each sign posted by the group contained a couple of words that, when read sequentially by a passer-by, revealed the statement, "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries." The signs also said, "Our bodies, our choice."
The new sign policy will allow for more student expression at the college but does include restrictions, said Jennifer Azevedo, a lawyer for the women's group.
Signs displayed along campus roads must be limited to providing directions to specific events at the school. But student groups are free to publicize their event on the sign and can title their program whatever they want, she said.
