Parents, Students Debate AIDS Education

LANCASTER — At the first public hearing since a nonprofit foundation was banned from conducting AIDS education seminars at Antelope Valley high schools, about 100 parents and students debated the issue with the local school board over the action.

After the hearing that ended Wednesday night, the board agreed to study the issue and discuss it again May 15. The board emphasized that while the Catalyst Foundation for AIDS Awareness and Care is on hold, the district’s health courses include a component on sexual education, which includes information about sexually transmitted diseases.

Supporters of the Catalyst program--an off-campus supplemental seminar formally used in the district’s sex education classes--argued that students need honest and sometimes graphic information about the life-or-death issue.

Two months ago the group was banished by the Antelope Valley Union High School District after a Catalyst lecturer gave what critics say was a misleading answer to a student’s question about oral sex. A lecturer suggested that a condom, a dental dam or plastic wrap should be used as protection.

Although the federally funded, county-approved program provides information on how sexually active teens can reduce their chances of getting infected, the program emphasizes abstinence, said Catalyst founder and Executive Director Susan Lawrence.

“We always start out by saying that the only 100% sure way to be safe is to abstain from sex and drugs,” Lawrence, a Lancaster physician, said in an interview.

Much of the 50-minute Catalyst presentations are taken up by testimonials of HIV-infected young people, she said.

Although Catalyst lectures touch upon abstinence, opponents insisted most of the program creates a false sense of security among naive teenagers who may engage in what they believe to be safe sex.

“We don’t believe AIDS education should be pulled,” Cheryl Rodriguez, a parent with two daughters attending Quartz Hill High School, told the board. “We just want [students] to get accurate information.”

Rodriguez, who said she researched the issue, cited 11 studies conducted by a University of Texas professor that found that condoms--which some students and parents say is Catalyst’s educational cornerstone--have a 31% failure rate against pregnancy and HIV transmission.

“If you go out and rob banks eventually you’re going to get caught or get killed,” said Judy Harrison, a parent who favors an emphasis on abstinence and opposes the return of Catalyst.

Speakers supporting Catalyst said that although condoms are not 100% effective, they do prevent some people from becoming infected.

“All students who so desire should receive information on a disease that threatens their lives,” said Michael Ambriz, Quartz Hill High senior class president.

Added 17-year-old senior Melissa Mark: “The important thing is to know how to save ourselves.”

Catalyst is working on a plan they hope to present to the board that could allow it to return to the classroom, Lawrence said.

The group is considering requiring permission slips from students who want to attend the lectures, submitting its staff to a six-hour seminar focused on school procedure and giving school sex education teachers veto power over Catalyst presentations.

Parents supporting the ban have their minds made up.

“As a parent, I know if [Catalyst] is reinstated, there will be children pulled from the district,” Rodriguez said. “We’re not going to stand by and let them teach our children that one plus one equals three.”