Trustees’ Role at AIDS Seminar Questioned

Teachers’ complaints that two conservative county school board members disrupted an AIDS prevention course have prompted a third board member to ask that the panel discuss the pair’s conduct at its next meeting.

Earlier this month, Ventura County Board of Education members Angela Miller and Wendy Larner dropped in on an HIV/AIDS prevention workshop for teachers across the county.

While Miller and Larner were there as observers, they interrupted and challenged the presenters frequently, taking time away from the workshop, teachers said.

“I went there to listen to the presentations,” said Sandra Holmgren of the Ventura Unified School District. “Larner and Miller constantly interrupted with questions and statements of their personal beliefs. I think their intent was to disrupt the workshop and intimidate people.”

Trustee Al Rosen, who has read the teachers’ anonymous course evaluations, said most of them were positive about the content of the workshop. But about half expressed concern about the presence of Larner and Miller, Rosen said. He said their conduct amounted to “interfering with schools throughout the county” and has requested that it be a topic for discussion at the board’s next meeting.

Larner and Miller, who have been vocal about their opposition to these workshops, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

The workshop was organized by the county superintendent of schools office but was requested and paid for by the teachers who attended. Some of them had been sent by their school districts, while others had paid for the workshop with their own money, said Judy Seyle, director of health programs for the county schools.

Julie Horne, who has taught family life at Balboa Middle School in Ventura for 27 years, said Larner objected to a lesson plan she presented at the workshop.

Horne described how students voluntarily participate in two scenarios involving couples who are getting married.

In the first scenario, two characters who have abstained from sexual behavior until marriage sit on a bedspread--representing their wedding--by themselves.

In the second scenario, the two students have had multiple sexual encounters, and their partners themselves have had other partners. The couple end up sharing the bedspread with several other students.

Horne said the lesson is designed to make students think about the consequences of promiscuous sexual behavior.

Horne said Larner told her the lesson was “outrageous” and was shocked that children would be put through such an uncomfortable situation.

Doug Halter, a Ventura man who has AIDS, said he was put on the defensive by the trustees who asked him several personal questions during his presentation and seemed dismayed by his answers.

Halter is part of a group called “Positively Speaking” that gives presentations to students about what it is like to live with AIDS. “It gives us a chance to give a face to AIDS,” Halter said.

Janice Schieferle, a Fillmore Senior High School health clerk, said she had gone to the conference to learn something new.

“If they [Miller and Larner] had been there to see what happened, that would have been fine,” Schieferle said. “But they were there to give their views. We were there for information, not for a debate.”

The AIDS training workshop, the first one in more than a year, may reignite a bitter debate on the county board.

Last spring, Larner, Miller and board President Marty Bates voted against allowing Planned Parenthood and local AIDS advocacy groups to train teachers on AIDS prevention and sex education. That decision sparked a long debate and an unsuccessful recall drive against Miller and Larner.

* HOSPICE SHUTS

Health violations cited in temporary closure. B8