Elementary District Weighs Condom Program : Oxnard: Educators, citing the risk of AIDS, say they may be made available if the high schools fail to adopt a similar plan first.

Oxnard Elementary School District officials said the risk of children contracting the AIDS virus through sexual activity has prompted them to consider making condoms available to junior high and elementary students.

But the district would only consider a condom program if Oxnard high schools fail to adopt a similar plan first, said Trustee Jack T. Fowler, who made the proposal at a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.

“If the high school district keeps their head in the sand, maybe we need to explore the program on our own,” Fowler said. He described the AIDS epidemic as “the most devastating plague the world has seen.”

Three high schools in Los Angeles have started dispensing condoms to students, and San Francisco educators plan to begin a pilot program in two high schools by January, said Beverly Bradley, the supervisor of health programs for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Bradley said she was not aware of any elementary or junior high schools in the state that distribute condoms to students.

The board also agreed to revise its 3-year-old anti-AIDS curriculum, lowering the grade level when children are first taught about prevention methods such as condoms.

While expanding AIDS education is expected to prove popular, making condoms available on elementary school campuses would surely ignite controversy, said Sheryle Milmont, president the Oxnard Parent Teachers Assn.

And the proposal also elicited caution from Supt. Norman R. Brekke, who warned the board that dispensing condoms to schoolchildren could harm the district’s effort to emphasize sexual abstinence.

“I’m worried about the concept that safe sex comes with the use of a condom,” Brekke told the board.

Thursday’s discussion followed the emotional response of students to the announcement by former basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson that he was retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers because he carries the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

“Even in kindergarten and first grade, Magic Johnson’s name is known by every student in the school district,” Brekke said.

On the day of Johnson’s televised news conference, word of the pending announcement circulated quickly, Brekke said. Many teachers asked and received permission to air the broadcast on classroom television sets, he said.

Because of the students’ reaction, the district invited parents to meet with teachers earlier in the week to review the current AIDS curriculum.

As part of a policy implemented three years ago, Oxnard elementary schools introduce students to AIDS information as early as kindergarten, but withhold sensitive details until the higher grades.

Information about the use of condoms to avoid infection is not taught until the seventh grade in the 12,500-student Oxnard Elementary School District.

In their discussion, the trustees stressed the need to reach children before they become sexually active. Health teacher Ethel Hayman told the board that she knew of two fifth-grade girls who had become pregnant.

“Waiting until the seventh grade to begin teaching some of these things may be too late,” Trustee Jean Harris said.

Fowler said it was “nature’s intent” that children became sexually active as young as 13, and that only cultural restraints prevented many children from expressing their sexuality.

“We need to tell young people that there are ways to protect yourself short of abstinence,” Fowler said.

Phil Gore, director of the county’s community schools where pregnant students are referred, said Friday that the number of student pregnancies has increased, and the age of the mothers has declined.

“Younger and younger kids are having kids,” Gore said.

Fowler asked the district to support any effort by the Oxnard Union High School District to implement a condom-distribution program, to which the district could refer its own students.

But he offered little hope that high school officials would adopt such a plan soon.

High school district officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

Milmont, Oxnard’s PTA president, said the district should refer any students who request condoms to Planned Parenthood.

Milmont expressed support for the district’s anti-AIDS curriculum, but said as an individual she opposed the distribution of condoms.

“If (Fowler) is talking about elementary school, he’ll have a furor,” Milmont said.

After the meeting, Trustee Jim Suter agreed that the elementary district may be forced to take the lead. “If the high schools are not going to do anything, then I think we should be on the cutting edge of this awful thing,” Suter said.

The district’s AIDS curriculum committee will review the proposals and is not scheduled to return to the board until at least March.