Distribution of Condoms Angers Parents : Sex: School officials receive phone calls, and say they could not prevent ACT-UP’s handout because it took place on public property, not on the Tustin High campus.

Officials at Tustin High and in the school district received dozens of phone calls on Thursday from parents angry about the distribution of condoms on Wednesday by an AIDS activist group.

Supt. David Andrews said that although some parents said they applauded the action, most said they support district policy, which is to stress abstinence from sex.

Orange County’s chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) passed out 1,000 colored condoms to students before school along with information about safe sex practices.

School officials told parents who called that although they did not condone ACT-UP’s action, they could not prevent it because members were on public property.

“They had the right to stand on the sidewalk as long as they were not disrupting the educational process or preventing kids . . . from leaving school,” Tustin High Principal Duffy Clark said. “The administration monitored the activity along with the Tustin police.”

Clark criticized the event as staged for the media.

“It was theatrical. It was an exhibition,” Clark said. “The real issues and the real questions have to do with how people treat one another and what kind of decision-making has to take place if people are going to be responsible partners in a relationship.”

Some of the callers Thursday objected to the explicit language in the pamphlets, which detail safe methods for various sex acts and include illustrations.

Barbara Parkinson, president of the Tustin High Parent Teacher Organization, said about 15 parents called her to say they were appalled by the material.

“I don’t approve of the way ACT-UP handled it. I don’t think it was an appropriate forum,” Parkinson said. “I don’t think the material they handed out was of any educational value.”

But members of ACT-UP, who plan to begin condom distributions at high schools throughout the county on a monthly basis, said it’s important to give teen-agers frank information about the prevention of AIDS.

Group members said they targeted Tustin High School after learning that the school’s approach is to stress abstinence to the exclusion of information about safe sex.

Andrews said Tustin follows state curriculum guidelines. Under those guidelines, teachers stress abstinence but also give students information about other options.

Linda Paire, AIDS education coordinator for the County Department of Education, said she thinks that most parents believe schools are doing a good job teaching students about sex.

And she said she agreed with some of the callers that simply passing out pamphlets with condoms is not the answer to increasing awareness.

“It needs to be handled in a much more sensitive way. It needs to be done in an educational setting,” she said. “We know from drug prevention research that giving information alone encourages experimentation. . . . Kids need to learn other skills. For example, they need to learn how to avoid risky behaviors, such as being alone with your date for long periods of time.”