1st of 3 School Medical Clinics Opens in Watts as 50 Protest

About 50 demonstrators chanting “Educate, not medicate” marched in front of Jordan High School in Watts on Tuesday to protest the opening of the first of three campus medical clinics in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The demonstration was the latest chapter in a two-year dispute over the clinics that has pitted the local Catholic Church and other anti-abortion groups against the Los Angeles school district.

The marchers, members of a loosely organized coalition calling itself the Network of Parents and Students Against School Sex Centers,” said they oppose the clinics on moral grounds. Clinic plans to offer birth control counseling and contraceptives, they said, will undermine parental authority and contribute to increased teen-age promiscuity.

But top school district officials, many of whom were on the Jordan campus for the clinic’s formal opening, disagreed. The clinic will provide a wide variety of health services, they said, of which controversial birth control services play only a small part. Clinic personnel will not perform abortions or make abortion referrals.

“Our focus is not just the reproductive system of young people,” said Dr. Clyde Oden, president of the Watts Health Foundation, the organization that will run the Jordan clinic.

Additionally, district officials said, use of the clinic is voluntary and students must have their parents’ written permission before they can receive any services.

In less than two weeks, about 40% of Jordan’s 1,900 students have returned signed consent forms, according to Principal Grace Strauther. If this rate holds up, it would be much higher than first-year participation rates at school-based clinics in comparable Chicago and St. Paul, Minn., neighborhoods.

No Negative Comments

“I haven’t heard one negative thing about this clinic from any of my neighbors,” said Denise Hubbard, who said she was going to give her 14-year-old daughter permission to use the medical facility.

The Jordan clinic will be staffed full time by a nurse practitioner and a health teacher. It will offer the part-time services of a pediatrician, a gynecologist and four clinical psychology doctoral students. Additionally, the Jordan High School nurse will continue to operate a separate office that will coordinate its services with the clinic.

Clinic services to be offered include physical examinations, immunizations, screening for high blood pressure, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and care for minor medical emergencies. The clinic will also provide counseling services that will range from weight control and alcohol and drug abuse to prevention of gang violence.

In the upcoming weeks, clinics are scheduled to open at Los Angeles High School in the Wilshire District and at San Fernando High School. The three schools were chosen because they have high rates of teen-age pregnancy and drug abuse.

Financing for all three clinics has come from grants from philanthropic organizations, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J., and private donations.

Tuesday’s demonstration is the most recent example of the battle over the clinics.

In a pastoral letter last year, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles urged Catholics and others “who value the family” to fight the clinics. He wrote that the availability of birth control services would “send a message to students legitimizing behavior contradicting our Judeo-Christian ethic.”

Not Using Birth Control

Earlier this year, to dramatize the need for campus clinics, the school district released a survey of students at the three schools. More than 40% said they were sexually active, although two-thirds of the sexually active students said they were not using any method of birth control.

In addition, the survey showed that 50% or more of the students said they saw a doctor less than once a year. Inability to pay, lack of transportation and fear that the visit would not be kept confidential were reasons the students cited for not going to a doctor.