NEWPORT BEACH : Elementary Schools to Offer AIDS Class

Next month, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s 16 elementary schools will begin their second year of teaching fifth- and sixth-grade students about AIDS prevention.

The class includes lectures on the transmission and infection cycle of the virus, an instructional list of medical terms and the presentation of a 15-minute video that compares AIDS to a “baseball game you can’t win.”

A state law passed last year requires AIDS education in grades seven through 12 beginning this fall. But Linda Paire, Orange County’s AIDS education coordinator, said it is not required in fifth and sixth grades.

As of this year in Orange County, only the Newport-Mesa Unified, Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City school districts teach AIDS prevention to children as young as those in fifth grade. Districts that offer such classes for sixth-graders are Brea-Olinda Unified, Laguna Beach Unified, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, Irvine Unified, Lowell Joint and La Habra City.

School officials said other elementary schools have no formal program as yet, although some are considering one.

“I think it’s great that (Newport-Mesa) is doing this,” said Debi Taylor, whose son, Andrew, attends Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar. “The children need to know.”

Taylor was one of about 80 parents who last week attended previews of the class, which is taught by two nurses. All were supportive of the class.

Taylor said her son, 11, began questioning her about AIDS after his hero, basketball star Magic Johnson, tested HIV-positive.

“He wanted to know what this means,” she said. “He wanted to know if this meant Johnson would die.”

Annie Hubbard of Corona del Mar said she appreciates the class because it “reduces the element of fear” for her son Christopher, also 11.

“Television acts as a springboard for discussion,” she said. “But I appreciate this because I want him to learn about AIDS in a positive manner.”

The AIDS program is part of district schools’ regular growth and development classes. Sexually transmitted diseases are already discussed in the growth and development class, but in 1990 the district added the separate AIDS presentation because of the life-threatening nature of that disease, said Bob Francy, director of student services in the Newport-Mesa district.

He said the growth and development class started three years ago when the district decided to develop a more consistent approach to sex education.

“In the past, such instruction in the schools was not a standardized experience,” Francy said. “People felt uncomfortable about the random, hit-and-miss approach.”

To participate in the hourlong class, children are required to have signed permission slips from their parents.

“Parents are almost always supportive,” said Francy, adding that only three parents in two years have called him to ask that their children be excused. “It’s the right stuff about the right topic presented in a sensitive fashion.”