Many Teens Still Ignorant About AIDS : Education: Faced with mounting evidence the disease is spreading among the young, the Los Angeles school district has set out to revamp its education program.

A 10th-grade boy emerged from a Dorsey High School health class and confirmed that he had indeed learned something that day: AIDS can’t be transmitted by giving blood at the Red Cross.

A girl said she discovered AIDS isn’t a temporary ailment like a common cold. And several students learned how the virus can pass into the bloodstream during sexual intercourse.

Another 15-year-old boy stood up as the bell rang and stuffed an educational pamphlet on AIDS into his backpack. “I didn’t realize you could get AIDS through anal sex,” he said.

A recent visit to a high school health class drives home the point that many 10th-graders remain ignorant of basic facts about AIDS, despite three years of sex education classes and an ongoing media blitz. Equally important, interviews with students indicate that even teen-agers who understand how to avoid contracting AIDS sometimes fail to take precautions.

“You tell a boy to wear a condom and he says, ‘Yeah, right.’ Kids don’t think about these things, they just want to get their thrills,” says one 15-year-old girl.

Faced with mounting evidence that AIDS is spreading among teen-agers and that current sex education classes aren’t getting the message across fully, the Los Angeles Unified School District has set out to revamp its AIDS education program.

A 100-member task force made up of medical experts, social workers, educators and parents spent the fall reviewing medical and educational data and is expected to make recommendations for change to the school board in coming months.

While AIDS education has been part of health classes for grades seven through 10 since 1986, some teachers say the curriculum should be expanded to devote more time to discussing sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS. Jackie Alexander, who heads Dorsey’s health department and who has taught in Los Angeles schools for 17 years, says that despite their seeming sophistication, many of her students are children playing at being grown-ups.

Even after Dorsey’s health class ended one winter day, for instance, students spilled into the hallways, peppering a visitor with additional questions about AIDS.

“We have so much material to give to the students in a short period of time,” sighs Alexander, who adds she has only one semester to cover nutrition, personal health, first aid, drug education and sex education--which all come under the rubric of health.

But a debate is already brewing between those who want schools to put more emphasis on sexual abstinence and those who say aggressive, explicit education is needed to reach students. Studies indicate that half of American teen-agers are sexually active.

Currently, teachers stress abstinence but also discuss safe sex, including urging that sexually active students use condoms to help prevent AIDS.

The 10th grade spends up to two weeks of the semester learning about sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, Alexander said. Parents who object to sex education can keep their children at home on those days, but teachers say that few do.

As the classroom discussion unfolded, nervous giggles gave way to questions. Afterward, students continued discussing AIDS and teen-age sex, their views a microcosm of the educational debate raging today.

“Teen-agers, if they don’t have (a condom), they aren’t going to say, ‘Wait, I’ll be back in a half-hour,’ ” one boy said.

“You shouldn’t have sex until you’re married,” a girl replied.

“You’re going to die one way or another,” shrugged a third.

The talk turned to condom use. Some students said they were too embarrassed to go to the store and buy condoms but that they would use them if provided at school. Others said they were scared and planned to change their behavior. Others thought that handing out condoms would encourage promiscuity.

“If you can control your behavior, you don’t need a condom,” said one boy.

“It’s too late for that, we’re living in the ‘90s, not the ‘50s,” another said.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, most commonly is transmitted during sexual intercourse or the sharing of contaminated drug needles.

Teen-agers account for 1,429 of the 152,000 cases of AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But their number has increased 40% in the last two years, according to Jeanne Blake, whose book “Risky Times” explains the dangers of AIDS for teens.

Health officials and educators say teen-agers are at special risk for AIDS because they tend to experiment more with sex and drugs.

“They think they’re invulnerable, they think they’re going to live forever and they don’t take the precautions that need to be taken,” says David Lacaillade, a spokesman for ACT-UP LA, a gay activist group pushing for more funding for AIDS research and education.

The current educational pamphlet on AIDS, written in 1987 by the district and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, explains what AIDS is, how it is caused, how it spreads, how to test for the virus and how to avoid unsafe sex acts and practice safe sex.

Los Angeles Unified is not contemplating any radical measures such as New York City schools, where Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez ignited a furor recently by suggesting that condoms be made available to all high school teen-agers.

But the district does have three high school health clinics that, among other things, distribute contraception to students at those schools who obtain parental approval to visit the clinics.

Some parent groups question whether Los Angeles Unified should be teaching adolescents about safe sex and condoms.

“What contemporary educators fail to realize is that the boldness of their approach seems to desensitize young people and inclines them to become more permissive,” says Danielle Madison, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, a Pomona-based group that says schools should focus on abstinence.

Madison, a member of the school district task force that is evaluating current AIDS educational methods, adds that “abstinence is the only 100% method we have to avoid AIDS.” Dorsey’s Alexander has her own ideas about how to improve sex education. For one, she would like to see the current one-semester health course expanded into an entire year.

She also thinks the district should offer high school seniors a “refresher course” on human reproduction, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases--including AIDS--before they graduate.

“For some, this is the end of their formal education,” Alexander says, “and it’s our last chance to hit home with them.”

But for one student at least, this month’s AIDS discussion seemed to hit home in 10th grade.

“I think if teen-agers knew more about the dangers of AIDS they would stop having sex,” a 15-year-old girl said. “I know I plan to be more careful.”