Bill Calls for School AIDS Films
In the first effort of its kind, a bill that would require California school districts to present AIDS prevention films to students in grades 7 through 12 was introduced Tuesday by state Sen. Gary K. Hart.
“Prevention is our only means of stopping the spread of AIDS,” the Santa Barbara Democrat said. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which has no known cure, has already infected about 29,000 people in the United States.
Approval of the bill would make California the first state in the nation to mandate an AIDS prevention program in the schools, Hart said. AIDS instruction is already provided in some health classes in the Los Angeles Unified School District and some other districts. Hart’s bill would expand the campaign statewide.
Hart, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, unveiled his bill at a press conference at Los Angeles High School attended by the media and the 11th-graders in teacher Tamara Hoffman’s American history class.
The students were also shown an AIDS prevention videotape discussing the varying risks of vaginal, oral and anal sex and intravenous drug use and recommending condoms as protection against the virus.
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