The College Fix

Alec Torres, the William F. Buckley Fellow at the National Review Institute, reports on a recent brouhaha at UCLA’s freshman orientation:

When two freshman sisters at UCLA were told their mandatory orientation on sexual harassment would include a section on sex education, they respectfully requested exemption from that part of the program. As Catholics, Angelica and Bella Ayala did not want to participate in the sex-ed presentation — which discussed, among other topics, how to put on a condom and how to ask someone to have sex with you — because contraception and premarital sex violate their moral code. But the two girls were swiftly reprimanded for their small protest and told they were required to attend another session, even if it violated their conscience.

According to California education code 231.5(e), educational institutions must provide information on sexual harassment to students in mandatory orientation programs, and at UCLA the orientation program on sexual harassment also covers topics of “sexual health.”

“We heard from upperclassmen who were also uncomfortable about the orientation because it advocated contraception and premarital sex,” Angelica Ayala told me in a phone interview. As the girls later discovered, the orientation also included an active-participation section where counselors asked students for examples of “how to ask someone to have sex without ruining the mood.” Another section included a skit about sexual harassment, replete with “graphic language” and a detailed description of “a couple passionately making out.” …

The Ayala twins are not merely worried about themselves and their own legal rights. “Our main objective now is to get UCLA to make changes to orientation,” Bella said. “UCLA is not being clear on what is mandatory, and we want students to be tolerated if they have religious or moral objections.”

When asked if they feel that UCLA stifles free speech or is hostile to their religious beliefs, the girls said that they haven’t had much experience yet at UCLA and they aren’t sure. However, they did say that “orientation is supposed to introduce you to what the institution is all about,” and the sex-ed workshop is “institutionalizing liberal bias.”

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