Candlelight Rally : Parents Told to Keep Children From Clinic

Opponents of a San Fernando High School health clinic held a candlelight demonstration in front of the campus Tuesday night and encouraged parents not to sign consent forms giving students access to the clinic.

The protest was the most recent in a yearlong series of community protests against the clinic and its controversial plan to offer birth-control counseling and contraceptives to students. Opposition leaders hastily organized the demonstration after they heard reports that students were being treated at the clinic without their parents’ knowledge.

“In spite of all our protests, all our marches and in spite of 6,000 signatures on petitions, they still opened the clinic,” said Lupe Ramos, one of about 30 protesters on hand.

School and district officials, however, deny that the clinic has accepted patients yet. It is not scheduled to officially open until the second week of December, Principal Bart Kricorian said.

But construction of the facility inside the high school at 1133 O’Melveny Ave. has been completed, and the Los Angeles County Department of Health last week granted the clinic an operating license.

“We’re kind of in a nebulous position now that we’ve been licensed,” said Rena Shpegel, the clinic’s director. “We could provide services, but we haven’t gone out and gotten parents to sign consent forms. So we’re operational, but we’re not going out to push services.”

She added that a few parents have stopped by the clinic and signed consent forms.

Nevertheless, Eadie Gieb, spokeswoman for Parents and Students United in the San Fernando Valley, a group opposing the clinic, said students have reported seeing classmates enter the clinic for treatment.

“Parents have not been given any consent forms to sign,” Gieb said. “Without consent forms, who can the people at the clinic treat, the school mascot? They’re operating the clinic behind our backs.”

Confusion over whether the clinic is admitting patients may have developed because the clinic is next to the school nurse’s office, said Maria Reza, who coordinates the school-based health-clinic program for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Parental permission is not needed to see the school nurse.

“There is a misconception out there that clinic personnel are seeing children without consent forms,” said Reza. “That simply is not the case.”

Protest leaders advised parents Tuesday night not to sign the forms. “Do not sign the consent form; council your children not to use the services of the clinic,” said Maryanne Lopez. “We can uphold our parental rights if we all hold together.”

Added Gieb, “We hope in two years to close this thing up.”

The San Fernando High medical center is one of three school-based health clinics in the Los Angeles school district that are scheduled to open this fall.

A clinic at Jordan High in Watts opened in September, and a clinic at Los Angeles High in the Wilshire District is scheduled to open in the next few weeks.

The three schools were chosen as clinic sites because they have high rates of teen-age pregnancy and drug abuse, according to district officials.

Services offered at all three clinics include physical examinations, immunizations and screening for high blood pressure and treatment for minor medical emergencies. The clinics also provide counseling on weight control and for drug and alcohol abuse.

Most controversial of the clinics’ services are birth-control counseling and the dispensing of contraceptives.

Clinic personnel are not allowed to give abortion counseling or make abortion referrals, according to district policy.

The clinics have drawn opposition from the Catholic Church and from anti-abortion groups. In the Valley, the fight against the San Fernando clinic has been led not only by Gieb’s group, but by a coalition representing five Valley Catholic parishes and some other community groups.