George Mason to lift punishment, pay damages to students who opposed tampons in men’s rooms

George Mason University has agreed to pay $15,000 in damages and attorneys’ charges to 2 feminine college students who have been disciplined for elevating objections to stocking tampons in males’s restrooms.

Attorneys for Selene Cerankosky and Maria Arcara, third-year college students on the GMU Antonin Scalia Regulation Faculty, dropped Friday their free-speech grievance filed in November after the university agreed to rescind its no-contact orders stopping them from interacting with a male classmate.

George Mason additionally agreed to vary its coverage “to make sure that no-contact orders can’t be used to suppress, coerce, or punish the train of First Modification Rights and pay Selene and Maria $15,000 in damages and attorneys’ charges,” mentioned the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the scholars.

“Universities—particularly legislation colleges—needs to be locations of debate and dialogue, and GMU has proven its dedication to this superb with the settlement it reached with Selene and Maria,” mentioned Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel and director of the ADF Heart for Tutorial Freedom.

“We applaud Mason for participating in a dialogue about how no-contact orders are used on campus and for working with ADF to enhance its procedures,” he mentioned.

The ladies have been banned from having any contact with the male classmate after they raised concerns on the “Scalia Regulation ‘25” GroupMe chat in September about his proposal to inventory menstrual hygiene objects in each males’s and ladies’s restrooms.

“After the male scholar solicited feedback in an open dialogue, Cerankosky responded to the put up saying that, if girls accessed male restrooms, she believed that males would search to entry personal feminine areas, which might violate her security and privateness in addition to her spiritual convictions about human sexuality,” mentioned the alliance. “Arcara voiced her settlement with Cerankosky’s issues together with different college students, however the male scholar accused them of bigotry.”

He complained to the Workplace of Range, Fairness, and Inclusion. Two weeks later, the university issued the no-contact orders forbidding any interactions with the male scholar.

Transgender advocates have pushed for colleges to supply tampons in boys’ and males’s rooms to accommodate feminine college students who establish as males, also called transmen.

Mr. Langhofer mentioned the disciplinary motion put the scholars’ careers in “critical jeopardy,” however that the adjustments would profit all college students in addition to the university.

“ADF hopes these new measures will enable the university to proceed to help college students, keep a secure setting, and foster the sturdy change of concepts that’s the cornerstone of a faculty expertise,” he mentioned. “Selene, Maria, and their fellow legislation college students can now really feel extra assured that their basic freedoms of speech and faith will likely be revered on campus.”