Wrong on AIDS

How sad to see the San Diego school board voting to fuel the fires of fear and ignorance in our community and to disregard all available expert advice on AIDS.

If only we had one more trustee the caliber of Dorothy Smith and Susan Davis, the board could assume a position of leadership and promote education and understanding.

Instead, the majority doubted that all the researchers and medical authorities had as great an understanding of AIDS as they did.

Following the lead of Trustee Kay Davis, who prides herself on not being “avant-garde or liberal,” they voted to substitute their amateur judgment for that of the scientists.

Does this group honestly believe that responsible physicians would recommend a school admissions policy that would endanger the lives of children? Are these physicians not also parents?

These three trustees argue that not enough is known about AIDS. I suspect that not enough will ever be known to inject reason into the decision-making process of Kay Davis and her followers.

What is known about AIDS is that a child has never transmitted the virus to anyone. What is known about AIDS is that no family member (other than sex partner) who has lived with an AIDS patient, even for several years, has ever contracted the disease.

A Massachusetts board of education voted to admit children with AIDS quietly and anonymously because its members comprehended and accepted all available medical expertise. The sky did not fall, the parents did not panic. They followed the lead of enlightenment provided by their Board of Education .

The San Diego school board chose to heed the words of a woman who is a sex therapist and has no credentials whatever as a recognized expert on infectious diseases.

I fear that official misdeeds such as this vote are only the beginning of a new era of fear, ignorance and hatred that will make the Salem witch hunts and McCarthy witch hunts look tame.

DIANA STRAIN

San Diego