GLENDALE : ACLU Joins Protest of Sex Ed Policy

In the wake of an abruptly canceled AIDS awareness play at Hoover High School, the American Civil Liberties Union has joined several parents in challenging the Glendale school district’s sex education policy.

Alan L. Friel, an ACLU staff attorney, appeared before the Glendale Board of Education on Tuesday night to take issue with the policy and the district’s cancellation last week of “Secrets,” a play produced by the Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente hospital care organization.

“The school board’s family life policy as it applies here presents some serious constitutional problems,” Friel told the five-member board. “You cannot regulate the content at all of what the play wishes to express.”

Although the ACLU has not filed a lawsuit formally challenging the policy, Friel joined some parents and students in urging the board to allow the AIDS education drama to be brought back to the campus before the end of the school year.

Neither the board nor district Supt. Robert A. Sanchis responded to the request.

Board President Jane Whitaker said after the meeting that it’s customary for the board to refrain from commenting on issues until after it consults with its legal staff and hears from others in the community. “I would not attempt to answer questions or to do anything until I felt there had been some type of adequate period of time for public (input),” Whitaker said. “When it’s appropriate, I’m sure we will be looking at this.”

District officials have said that they closed the curtains on “Secrets” Feb. 7--the day before its scheduled performance--because it discusses condoms as a way to help prevent AIDS.

The district’s policy focuses on abstinence from sex as the only way to avoid AIDS, said Gregory Bowman, director of instruction and student services.

But Friel and Hoover’s Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. president noted Tuesday night that the 6-year-old sex education policy does not address the term “safe sex” and does not prohibit anyone from teaching condoms as an alternative way to prevent AIDS.

“Nowhere does this policy statement say we will stress abstinence, or we will teach abstinence only,” PTSA President Susan Kussman said.

Kussman’s daughter, Allegra, a Hoover student, told the board that teen-agers should be allowed to choose between learning about the practices of abstinence and safe sex.

“Take your heads out of the sand and realize that there are kids at our school who are having sex,” she said. “What’s wrong with learning how to put a condom on?”

About 20 Hoover students and parents appeared at the board meeting in support of the “Secrets” play.

The 50-minute production centers on a high school senior, Eddie, and his girlfriend, Monica. Eddie learns he has tested positive for the HIV virus, while Monica tells her friends that she intends to abstain from having sex with her boyfriend.

A version of the play, seen by an estimated 700,000 students in Southern California, will be performed tonight at the Glendale Central Library auditorium, said Rick Burke, director of educational theater programs at Kaiser Permanente.