BURBANK : AIDS Awareness Books Ordered

Burbank school officials have placed an order for $8,500 worth of books that will help teach seventh- and ninth-graders about the dangers of AIDS.

AIDS awareness will be taught during health classes for two weeks. The curriculum was approved by the Burbank school board last week after board members made sure that teachers will stress abstinence from sex as the only way to prevent acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Students will be told that condoms cannot prevent the disease.

“We don’t call that safe sex,” Canady said of condom use. “We call that safer sex.”

Outside AIDS instructors must be approved by Andrea Canady, the district’s curriculum director, before they can teach.

The state requires each district to draw up an AIDS curriculum, but “we wanted to make sure we personalized it to Burbank,” board President Elena Hubbell said.

School officials developed the curriculum to reflect Burbank’s conservative values, but Canady said parents will be allowed to keep their children out of health class during those two weeks.

The curriculum and books will be available for parental review in late September or early October, Canady said.

Approval of the AIDS curriculum comes a month after parent protests killed a proposal to put a family planning clinic at the McKinley Elementary School. School officials said few parents have complained about the AIDS curriculum.