School Board OKs AIDS Study Panel
Noting that 19% of the cases of AIDS in Los Angeles County have been diagnosed in people 29 or younger, the Los Angeles Board of Education has moved to form a “blue-ribbon” task force of health professionals and others to advise the board on how to lessen students’ exposure to the deadly virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Board members voted 7 to 0 this week to authorize Supt. Leonard Britton to form the “medical study team” despite the realization that such a project would almost certainly raise the highly controversial issue of sex education in the classroom.
“We cannot talk about effective AIDS education without talking about effective sex education,” board member Rita Walters said before the vote on the task force.
“Sex education is always a very controversial issue,” said board member Julie Korenstein, but “preventing death should not be.”
No date was set for the panel to be formed or to report back to the board.
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