AIDS Curriculum Alive and Well

The April 28 Valley Edition editorial about the conflict between the Catalyst Foundation and the Antelope Valley Union High School District was incomplete because it failed to acknowledge the AIDS curriculum being taught in the district. It left readers with the impression that AIDS awareness is not being taught at all in Antelope Valley high schools.

In fact, the district has an AIDS awareness curriculum that complies with state law and is taught by professional Healthful Living instructors accountable to the district for conformance to its curriculum. The information on AIDS is current and is presented to students in a frank manner with strong emphasis on abstinence as the only sure method of preventing AIDS.

The Catalyst Foundation is a private group that gets some funding from the federal government. The organization volunteered to come to high schools in the Antelope Valley and talk about AIDS. They had been on our campuses for several years when, in response to a student’s question about oral sex, foundation members went into graphic detail about the use of artificial devices during oral sex to supposedly protect against AIDS. As a result, several parents came to the high school board with complaints about the offensive content and inaccuracy of that reply. One of the parents was a medical professional who works in the field of sexual assault response. She provided the board with a broader scope of information about the spread of AIDS. Because of the nature of the complaint and the fact that the presented information was not only too graphic for high school but also stopped far short of the accuracy needed to help students make wise decisions, the Catalyst Foundation was invited to leave.

The information from the Catalyst Foundation that condoms, dental dams and, yes, Saran Wrap will protect students from AIDS is, in the opinion of many medical professionals, simply untrue and, additionally, incomplete.

Research from Dr. Lorraine Day while she was an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco reveals that the virus that causes AIDS is small enough to pass through the pores of an expanded condom and “space suit” protective surgical clothing. Her book, “Aids, What the Government Isn’t Telling You,” revealed a dangerous world of exposure to AIDS and resulted in her being ostracized by many colleagues in the medical community.

The Catalyst Foundation’s teaching of “safe sex” through the use of preventive devices misleads children into thinking that rather than controlling their behavior, they will be safe if they will only use a little latex. For example, no condom will protect a person against Human Papilloma Virus, HPV, a precursor to cervical and penile cancer, because the infectious cells can be passed through contact with pubic hair. Can children afford that kind of ignorance? Because members of the board have health concerns about serious venereal diseases beyond AIDS, does that really mean that we have our heads in the sand or does it mean that we want to look at the total picture of this complex issue in an unemotional, logical and factual manner?

There is no denial by members of the Antelope Valley Union High School District board of the seriousness of AIDS, and if The Times had simply asked instead of shooting from the hip, then a more balanced editorial could have been written.