Durham high school students have been asked to keep their love of “boobies” to themselves.

Several students at an Oshawa high school had been wearing rubber wristbands that spell out “I love boobies” as part of a breast cancer awareness and fundraising campaign.

The Durham District School Board says the bracelets are inappropriate for school wear. As a result, students at R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate are not allowed to wear the bracelets.

But a spokeswoman for Keep A Breast Foundation said she was “completely surprised” by the backlash against use of the word “boobies.”

“We never meant it to be offensive,” said Kimmy McAtee. “We just meant it to be a young word that resonated with people more than a pink ribbon would.”

“It’s a word everyone says. Mothers say it to their babies . . . It’s really a word that young people and cancer survivors and everyone uses,” McAtee said.

Durham school board spokeswoman Andrea Pidwerbecki said the board respects the message the bracelets send, just not the delivery.

“The issue is that the wording is considered to be inappropriate for school,” she wrote in an email Tuesday. “Indeed the board and its schools respect the worthy cause.” No suspensions have been issued.

At two other high schools, Sinclair Secondary in Whitby and O’Neill Collegiate in Oshawa, students were asked to remove or cover T-shirts bearing the same slogan.

McAtee said the Keep A Breast Foundation was aware of controversy surrounding the slogan at schools in several U.S. states, including Pennsylvania, where a federal court judge recently ruled that students were allowed to wear the bracelets. She had never heard of any problems in Canada.

Toronto District School Board spokeswoman Shari Schwartz said she was unaware of any “boobies” problem in Toronto. According to TDSB policy, each school is responsible for creating a dress code and determining appropriate dress.