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Boston Public Schools Replace Thousands Of Condoms After Wrapper Message Complaints

BOSTON (CBS) – Boston Public Schools have returned what's left of 40,000 condoms donated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to the schools' free condoms program.

That's because the wrappers carried suggestive messages that many parents said were inappropriate for their teenagers.

"I was deeply offended," said Helen Dajer, a mother of three teenagers in the Boston School system. "As a health care provider, I've given out countless condoms, but never any like these.
The wrappers need to be neutral, maybe just blue or red, not these suggestive slogans, which are offensive to women."

The condom policy was adopted last year by the school committee allowing high school students to receive condoms after being counseled on safe-sex practices. Parents have the option to opt their high school students out of the program.

"Our policy was to have them available to high school students who agreed to counseling," said Boston Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Lee McGuire. "And when parents complained, we examined them, then removed them."

"We made the decision to take all of those condoms out of school circulation and to go with some that had different, generic wrappers," Boston Public Schools Director of Media Relations Brian Ballou told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Thursday.

The state has since stepped in, and provided more generic condoms. It's not known how many of the original shipment of condoms were handed out.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports

Boston School Condoms

Davin Wedel, president of Global Protection Corp., which made the condoms, told the Boston Globe his company learned of the problem Wednesday and said that a third-party distributor working for the state provided the condoms.

WBZ-TV's Bill Shields contributed to this report.

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