Planned Parenthood posters taken down
By Jerry Manter

Managing Editor

A series of Planned Parenthood posters have been taken down, possibly by people opposing the organization s message.

Jill Cannon, secondary education major and volunteer with Planned Parenthood, spent time designing and constructing the informative posters, which spoke about emergency contraception.

 At first, I thought people were taking the posters for information,  Cannon said.

After she discovered one of Planned Parenthood s posters was taken down, she knew what was going on.

 I was upset,  she said.  People don t have to like it or have the right to take it down. 

Cannon said if people don t like what Planned Parenthood is saying, then they can make a poster which says they disagree with it.

Before any poster can be placed anywhere on campus, it must be approved by an employee in the student activities office. If the poster lacks the stamp of approval, maintenance has the right to throw the poster away.

If it s OK, then the poster can be hung up.

 We stamp everything, if it doesn t violate any campus policies,  said Julie Blackford, director of student activities.

Blackford said the take-down problem usually occurs with posters which share religious and sexual information.

 It s not right to take them down,  Blackford said.  They re just putting information up. 

She said it s hard to catch perpetrators in the act. If they are caught, the person will be reported to student services.

Although discouraged about her efforts, Cannon doesn t plan to stop volunteering.

 I plan to put more posters up,  she said.