Apparently not everyone is a fan of Keep A Breast's iconic "I Heart Boobies" rubber bracelets! According to many a news source, schools around the country have begun banning the bracelets after receiving complaints from parents, despite the positive message the bracelets send about educating young girls about the importance of early detection and prevention of breast cancer.
13 year-old Sarah Garaci of Santa Clara, CA received one of the KAB bracelets as a Christmas gift and has not taken it off since. Despite the positive message, Garaci's teachers think it is an inappropriate choice for school and have asked her to stop wearing it.
- "One of my other teachers, I asked her, 'What do you think of the bracelet?' She told me it was demeaning and offensive, and people were making fun of breast cancer," Garaci says.
According to school administrators, male students are beginning to harass female students over the bracelet's message (I <3 Boobies - Keep A Breast).
- School board member Andrew Ratermann said, "We would be fully supportive of the concept of wanting to do something about breast cancer. But, I think the makers of the bracelets chose intentionally to start a controversy because of the words they used."
"I thought it was a fun message and I thought it would get the awareness out in an easy way," Karen Garaci says. "Instead of saying, 'Look, breast cancer's going to kill you. Do your exams.' Here, I love boobies. Let's save them and make it approachable for her age group," says Sarah's mom Karen Garaci. "I completely support it. I don't want my daughter to die of breast cancer."
A portion of the sale of each bracelet, sold in stores and on the KAB website, goes to breast cancer education and research. Sarah plans on continuing the wear the bracelet because, her words, "it actually has a good cause to it. It has good meaning."
Keep A Breast stands by their message and has taken to their blog to defend themselves and tell supporters how important an opportunity they have to make some noise about the cause:
- "The entire idea of the campaign is to take this serious horrible subject, break the ice, and make it easy to talk about. We tell all the principals that this is actually their OPPORTUNITY, to talk to their students about an issue that effects them and is important to them, take this opportunity to educate your students on how they can prevent breast cancer."
To read their entire take on the school systems' outcry, check out their blog post. Show your support and earn donations for Keep A Breast by choosing them as your Cause on SocialVibe.
You can also buy one of the special edition Valentine's Day I Love Boobies bracelets in RED for this week only, available at Spencer's.
What do you think - are the schools out of line here, or should students find a way to support breast cancer education without the word "boobies?"
