HUNTINGTON BEACH : School AIDS Course Given Tentative OK

Huntington Beach City School District trustees have tentatively approved an AIDS prevention education program that will be taught later this spring to about 800 seventh- and eighth-grade students at Isaac L. Sowers and Ethel Dwyer middle schools.

Instruction is expected to begin after the board adopts the program, an action that is expected on March 2.

The program is required by a 1991 state law mandating that students in grades seven to 12 receive AIDS prevention instruction at least once in junior high or middle school and once in high school.

Parents or guardians will be invited to conferences at Sowers and Dwyer schools to go over the program with teachers. Parents can exclude their children from the AIDS studies if they make that request in writing.

“This program, which emphasizes abstinence, also attempts to provide students with effective refusal skills and decision-making skills to overcome peer pressure and to avoid high-risk activities,” Assistant Supt. Alan Rasmussen said Monday.

The instruction, which will last about two weeks in the schools’ science-family life curriculum, will include:

* Information on the nature of AIDS and its effects on the human body.

* Information on how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is and is not transmitted; ways to reduce the risk of HIV infection, and public health issues associated with AIDS.

* Information on local resources for HIV testing and medical care; decision-making skills to avoid high-risk activities, and discussion about society’s views on AIDS, including stereotypes and myths regarding people with AIDS.

The curriculum was developed by district science teachers and approved by the Committee for AIDS/HIV Education composed of Board of Trustees President Shirley Carey, parents, a school nurse, a school administrator and science teachers from Sowers and Dwyer.