Controversy Over Condoms, Safe-Sex Advice for Students

I firmly agree that condoms should be passed out at every high school in this country. As a 17-year-old girl, I am worried about a lot of things. Although the thing that scares me the most is what will happen to my generation in 10 or 15 years as a result of AIDS.

I do not think that passing out condoms will advocate sex. This will advocate a safer way of having sex and that’s all. As a teen-ager, I have seen what happens almost every Friday and Saturday night. Teen-agers get drunk and “get together” with anyone. I am not saying in any way that this is right; it really sickens me that someone can think that low of themselves. But the fact remains that teen-agers are not going to stop having sex if the schools do not teach about it or give out protection. Rather, they will have unprotected sex and further the spread of AIDS.

It is really amazing to me to hear some of my friends talk about AIDS. They have so many misconceptions about how it is transmitted, who gets it and how to cure it. In this day of awareness, I really believed that most people knew these basic things about AIDS. But I was wrong. We do need the schools’ education.

There are hundreds of parents out there who prefer to stick their heads in the sand and believe that their child would never do that, so they do not teach or talk about anything with them. So many people are going to die from AIDS, and it is sad but true that a lot of cases could have been prevented with the simple use of a condom.

I am begging the schools to wake up and stop hiding information that is going to hurt us in the long run. And start helping us so that we will have a generation.

LISA MURREY, Laguna Niguel