Local News in Brief : Student Health Clinic

With considerable fanfare, the Los Angeles school district unveiled a student health clinic at Los Angeles High School on Tuesday--the third of three such clinics put into operation since September.

The Los Angeles High clinic opened for business last week and has already treated 44 students for a wide range of common ailments, such as earaches and colds. “We were very busy last week,” clinic coordinator Socorro Macias said.

Like the clinics at Jordan and San Fernando high schools, which opened late last year, the Los Angeles High clinic is funded primarily by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a New Jersey-based philanthropic organization. It is operated and staffed by Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and offers basic medical and psychological services at no charge to students who provide signed parental consent forms. The hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

More than 400 students have used the Jordan and San Fernando high clinics, according to clinic officials. Birth control counseling and dispensing of contraceptives are among the services offered at all three clinics--an aspect that initially stirred community protests, particularly at San Fernando high--but officials have reported that only a small number of students have requested help in those areas.