HIV/AIDS Education

I read with interest the report quoting Conejo Valley Unified School District Trustee Mildred Lynch regarding her attendance at an AIDS education workshop for district educators. She is quoted as saying that “teaching that anyone can get AIDS is nonsense. It’s a behavioral disease.”

I work daily with children and teens who are HIV/AIDS infected, many through only the behavior of being born. I was appalled that a trustee of the school district would be so lacking in compassion, understanding and information, but I have found through my work that these views are very widespread.

I suggest to Ms. Lynch, and to all those with similar views, that mistakes are part of the human condition. Educating our young people to value themselves, and to have compassion for those who are afflicted with HIV/AIDS--whatever the reason--will produce young people who are less likely to replicate the mistakes of those who have gone before them, in the spread of this cruel disease.

As I turned to the editorial page to get the address for this letter, I saw the editorial on Elizabeth Glaser’s legacy. She stands as a now departed spokesperson for the millions of people, including children, who suffer from HIV/AIDS through no “behavioral” quirk of their own, and, as the editorial pointed out, “totally rejected the view (that) this is a disease that strikes those who do not deserve our compassion.”

I am surely not the only person who perceived the irony in these two articles being published in the same day’s newspaper. Those of us who are striving to further the battle against HIV/AIDS must have compassion for people like Ms. Lynch, who remind us of the importance of this work. There is much to be done to educate those who are at risk of infection and to care for all of those who are infected with HIV/AIDS.

AMY BRANSKY

Ojai

Amy Bransky is executive director of All Children Count.