PIERCE COLLEGE : AIDS Education Events Planned

Free condoms, safe sex information cards, several speakers and a variety of other activities to promote awareness among students will be part of this week’s AIDS Education Week programs at Pierce College.

“It’s a wonderful week of awareness about what you should and shouldn’t know about the truths and myths about AIDS,” said Danny Lawler, vice president of the Associated Students Organization, which will sponsor the event.

“Young people need to change their behavior to stay alive. They are still having unprotected sex. We need to focus on changing this,” said Colleen Rooney, coordinator of the week’s activities.

Statistics show that of the college’s enrollment of 20,000 students, about 200 of these students may be infected with the AIDS virus, said Robert Birch, AIDS Education Committee community representative.

“I’m forced to believe there are still pockets of denial within the student population that are desperately holding onto the mistaken belief that it just won’t happen to them,” Birch said.

“The AIDS virus does not discriminate. In urban areas, the human immunodeficiency infection rate is as high as one in every 100 students. One person dies every seven minutes from AIDS-related illnesses or HIV infections.”

The rate of infection for the 13-through-24 age group is growing at the same pace as that of gay men, Rooney said.

Throughout the week, speakers will discuss in classrooms and in the Campus Center how to prevent the spread of AIDS and other topics, including how to properly use a condom.

AIDS Intensive Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday will feature dance and theater students performing interpretive dancing to poems and letters written by people infected with the HIV virus.

A question-and-answer session is scheduled at noon Wednesday.

Information from medical personnel about safe sex will be presented at 7 p.m. that same day.