Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Condom challenge muted by high risk Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 17:26:45 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION;SPECIAL REPORT \HD Condom challenge muted by high risk \BY Melanie Howard \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Sex and AIDS education in District schools stirred little debate until this spring, when the city's Public Health Commission announced it would distribute condoms in junior and senior high schools as part of an AIDS prevention program. The program is run by the health commission rather than the school system. Consequently, the usual rules governing sex education in school - that parents can pull their children out of programs they are uncomfortable with - don't apply. "Right now, we are concerned that parents do not have the right to refuse the service for their children," said William Brown, president of the D.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers, an umbrella group of PTAs. "We are looking to build and reinforce and establish family values where they have been lost, and here we have an agency of our government that totally ignores those things we are working for." Still, public criticism of the condom distribution program has been fairly muted, especially when compared with the uproar that changes in sex education have caused in surrounding jurisdictions. Four years ago, many Fairfax County parents spoke out against the new sex-education curriculum, Family Life Education. Last year, Montgomery County parents protested vigorously when the Board of Education voted over their objections to allow contraceptives to be displayed in sex-education classes. D.C. parents have held no organized protests against condom distribution, and Caitlin Ryan, head of the D.C. Agency for HIV/AIDS, which administers the program, said she has received only one negative letter. Several parents said that although their PTAs are split on the issue of condoms, parents are frightened by statistics that show D.C. youths are at a high risk for HIV infection. The health commission reported this spring that 75 percent of all District 10th graders were sexually active and 40 percent had had four or more sex partners. "It's scary as hell," said Vic Adams, parent of an eighth-grader at Deal Junior High in Northwest. He said Public Health Commissioner Mohammad Akhter, who has explained the program to parents on the PTA circuit, makes a convincing case. "People who go into that [lecture] come out converted. The statistics are deadly." James Foster, president of the PTA at Charles Young Elementary in Northeast, said the condom program is really a minor issue for most parents, who are far more concerned about school maintenance, teacher pay and student test scores. "I think the schools have a lot more to be concerned with than whether they are or are not giving out condoms," he said. Dr. Mary Ellen Bradshaw, chief of the Bureau of School Health Services in the Public Health Commission, said the District has sent two letters to parents of school children explaining the AIDS education program and giving them telephone numbers to call for more information. "Our whole focus is to save the lives of these children, stressing abstinence as the only sure way to avoid [AIDS] and making condoms available only after intensive education," Dr. Bradshaw said. Although the condom program has grabbed the spotlight, District public schools have had an extensive sex-education program since 1979 and an AIDS education program since 1988. Both sex and AIDS education are taught as part of health and physical education, beginning in the fourth grade, said Jackie Sadler, who coordinates AIDS education in the city's public schools. Under city law, children can begin receiving instruction in both subjects in pre-kindergarten. For such young students, sex education usually involves teaching correct terminology for parts of the body and proper hygiene, said Ms. Sadler. To help prevent child sexual abuse, young students are also taught they should not allow others to touch their sexual organs. In AIDS education, the very youngest children learn not to pick up needles on the street or broken "balloons," which could be used condoms. By the time students are in later elementary years, they are taught that drug use and unprotected sex can cause AIDS. But details about sexual intercourse, homosexuality and condom use are not part of the curriculum. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM