BUENA PARK : District Prepares to Give AIDS Program

Parents, teachers and administrators in the Buena Park School District are gearing up for a a five-month brainstorming session designed to bring an AIDS prevention program to junior and senior high students by next year.

According to state law, all districts are required to start teaching AIDS education during the 1992-93 school year. Under the plan, there are several topics that must be taught, including the stressing of abstinence as well as the success and failure rate of condoms in preventing the spread of the disease.

Because of the controversial nature of the topic, the district is taking several months to gauge community reaction before adopting a course. “It is a sensitive issue,” said Sandra Barry, assistant superintendent of educational services. “We want people to know they can be heard.”

To this end, a task force composed of teachers, administrators, parents and other groups, including local doctors, is being formed that will help oversee the process. It will be the committee’s job to review various ideas, including which students will get the information and how often. The group will then make a recommendation to the district’s governing board.

The law requires the AIDS class to be presented at least once during the year, but parents can refuse to allow their children to participate.

While some districts have taken the process one step further and adopted AIDS courses for elementary students, Buena Park is not considering that, Barry said. “At this point we don’t have any plans to implement below the junior high levels,” she said, adding that personally she thought the sooner children start getting the information the better.

After a course is chosen and adopted by the district, which is expected sometime in June, a series of meetings will be held at the start of the school year to inform parents.

“I am really excited about it,” Barry said. “I think it is really important that we start educating the kids early.”