Condom Plan Raises a Host of Questions : Education: The L.A. district will take a close look at similar programs in other cities to determine how to implement the distribution.

With the approval of a controversial plan to make condoms available on all high school campuses, a host of new problems looms before the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Who will pass out the condoms? Trained health-care professionals or volunteer staff members?

How will the money-starved school district fund the program?

If a condom should break, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy or contraction of the AIDS virus, will the district be legally responsible?

On Wednesday, a day after a divided board voted to distribute condoms on all 49 high school campuses, district officials said they will take a close look at similar programs in several districts across the country as they begin to address those issues and hammer out the fine points of the program.

With Tuesday’s decision, Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school district, joins New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and a number of smaller districts in furnishing high school students with condoms as part of a broader effort to educate youths about AIDS and the dangers of unprotected sex.

The condom program is part of a 10-point plan, adopted Tuesday, to amplify the district’s current AIDS education and prevention efforts.

The district’s plan allows parents to refuse their youngsters permission to request condoms.

Because of that stipulation, board member Mark Slavkin, who voted for the program, said Wednesday that using vending machines to dispense the condoms probably will not be an option. “The requirement would (call for) the involvement of some person who can match kids asking for condoms with those whose parents have denied them permission,” he said.

But the district must decide if its own staff members will play a role in the dispensing process.

Some students interviewed Wednesday favored having campus nurses counsel students as well as hand out condoms.

“A nurse could give you advice and ask if you are ready” for sexual activity, said Claudio Rosas, 19, a 10th-grader at Manual Arts High.

Currently, at the district’s three campus-based clinics, condoms are available for students with written parental permission. Teen-agers discuss contraceptive options and sexual practices with a clinic staff member before receiving any birth control devices. About 250 youths received condoms during the last school year, officials said.

In New York City, which last November became the first major school district to distribute condoms without parental consent, faculty members and administrators dispense condoms and provide counseling, if asked. They are stationed in a designated room on each high school campus for at least 10 hours every week to offer the service.

“The people who make the condoms available are trained volunteer staff members--teachers, guidance counselors, assistant principals, any staff member who volunteers to be part of the program,” said Kim Bohen, spokeswoman for the New York City public school system.

Condoms have been on tap in 16 of the city’s 120 high schools, with the rest slated to join by the end of June, Bohen said. An “AIDS Education Team” on each campus--consisting of teachers, students and parents--monitors the process and works out details.

By contrast, the Philadelphia school board decided against having its teachers and administrators dispense condoms because of their lack of experience and because officials hoped to involve professional health-care agencies in the effort, according to Herbert Hazan, the district’s director of school health services.

“Very clearly we weren’t going to resolve this problem (of the spread of AIDS) or any other problems associated with adolescent sexual behavior if we were doing it alone,” he said. “We wanted to form partnerships with a lot of other community organizations because this is a communitywide problem, and we need to work together to solve it.”

Under the plan adopted last June and already phased in at four of the district’s 40 high schools, each campus works in conjunction with a health-care provider, such as a local hospital, which provides an employee--from social workers to health educators--to staff a campus drop-in center.

But before students can walk out with condoms in their pockets, they receive advice that stresses abstinence as the only foolproof method of preventing transmission of venereal disease.

Parents can keep their children from receiving condoms, but of 7,800 students at the four Philadelphia schools that have implemented the program, the district has received only 69 parental vetoes, Hazan said. About 250 students as of last week had visited the drop-in centers, but it was unclear how many condoms were actually handed out.

The Philadelphia program carries virtually no price tag for the district, Hazan added. Community organizations offer the manpower, while the city’s department of public health has donated half a million condoms as well as educational materials.

In New York, too, the program is being completely subsidized through private donations--about $600,000--and a supply of condoms designed to last through this school year was donated by manufacturers.

Slavkin expressed hope that Los Angeles can also avoid dipping into its shrinking coffers by pooling district and public health agency resources. It is not known how much Los Angeles’ program will cost.

Because the programs in New York and Philadelphia are relatively new, neither has yet faced any problems with liability, according to officials. But both Hazan in Philadelphia and Bohen in New York said their respective school boards were satisfied that they would not be at fault if a condom failed to work properly.

“We had the city’s corporation counsel look at the plan before the board voted on it, and their assessment was that the board would have no liability,” Bohen said. “Any liability would be the manufacturers’.”

Richard Mason, the Los Angeles school board’s legal counsel, was not available for comment.

While several public school districts have opted to dispense condoms, the practice apparently is not widespread among private schools, the vast majority of which are religious and condemn sexual intercourse outside of marriage.

In Santa Monica, however, condoms are available on request from the school nurse for students at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences under a program begun this school year. But so far very few youths have taken advantage of the program, which has surprisingly ignited little controversy , according to Crossroads Headmaster Paul Cummins.

Times staff writers Charisse Jones and Jean Merl contributed to this story.

School District Policies

Here is a look at some school districts around the country that provide condoms to students:

* New York City Began distributing condoms, without parental consent, to high school students in November, 1991.

* San Francisco Pending the settlement of some legal questions, condoms could be available at the district’s high schools as early as February. Program allows parents to keep their teen-agers out of the program.

* Cambridge, Mass. Beginning in May, 1990, condoms were made available, without parental consent, to high school students.

* Falmouth, Mass. Implemented a program this month to give junior and senior high students access to condoms without parental consent. At the junior high level, condoms are available from school nurses only. However, high school students may obtain them from school nurses or at vending machines located in school restrooms.

* Philadelphia In December, started making condoms available to high school students, but only after they receive counseling that urges abstinence. Parents may deny school officials permission to give their teen-agers condoms.

* Commerce City, Colo. Has made condoms available to high school students since September, 1988. Parents may keep their teen-agers out of the program.

Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers