Students Hear Lessons on AIDS

In a frank discussion that put a human face to AIDS, two people from the Being Alive Speakers Forum addressed high school students Tuesday at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies as part of the school’s AIDS/HIV Awareness Week.

Speakers Regina Brandon and Sean Chamberlain, both of whom were diagnosed with AIDS more than 10 years ago, talked about their own experiences living with the disease and implored students not to engage in risky behavior.

Connecting with the students both intellectually and emotionally, Brandon and Chamberlain discussed the facts of the disease as well as methods of protection and then recounted their own harrowing survival stories.

“I bid you right now to take a look in the mirror when you get home,” Brandon told the students. “That is what the virus looks like. You, me, everybody.”

Displaying a maturity that belied their age, the students listened intently to the sometimes sexually explicit discussion and responded to the speakers with a series of thoughtful questions.

Senior Roth Sam said many of the statistics cited by the speakers, such as two Americans contracting the virus each minute, made the threat of HIV infection seem more real.

“Sometimes teenagers can be very ignorant. People think, ‘Hey, it’s not going to happen to me, why should I care?’ ” Sam said. “But when you learn about the statistics, you realize it can happen to anyone.”

About 350 students, roughly half of the school’s ninth- through 12th-grade enrollment, attended the discussion, which was coordinated by a student group called “We Dare to Care,” school Principal Larry Rubin said. Attendance was voluntary and required signed permission from a parent.

“As long as HIV is out there, we have to give them as much information and as many tools as possible so they can make the right decisions,” he said.

Today through Friday, two 3-foot-by-6-foot panels from the Names Project AIDS quilt will be displayed at the school to commemorate those who have died of the disease.