Protest Fails to Derail Health Clinic Plans

A rally held by an anti-abortion group to protest sexual counseling at a proposed student health clinic at Culver City High School fell on deaf ears, according to Kay Lyou, president of the Culver City Board of Education.

About 70 people gathered Tuesday night at the Linwood Howe Elementary School at the same time that the board was meeting in closed session at another building a block away.

By the time the board arrived at the elementary school to conduct its regularly scheduled public meeting, the protest rally had ended and the crowd had left.

“The rally apparently was a media event, having nothing to do with us,” Lyou said Wednesday. “We will continue with our plans to open the health center, hopefully by September.”

The Board of Education last month approved a plan by UCLA health officials for a clinic offering a wide range of health services to be operated by the university on the joint campus of Culver City High School and Middle School.

Responding to complaints voiced by some parents, the board voted not to dispense contraceptives at the center.

But speakers at the rally said that the board action could be changed once the clinic was opened. They contend that students would be encouraged to engage in premarital sex.

“The more sex material there is, the more nurses to discuss sex, the more enticement there will be for young people to engage in sex,” said the Rev. Gwin Turner of Marina Cathedral. “Now that God and morality have been taken out of the schools, there is no way to tell students not to engage in sex. All you can do is tell them how to.”

Robert G. Knopf, member and former president of the Culver City Board of Education, said the protest group is not representative of the views expressed to him by Culver City residents.