Education on AIDS Controversial Topic

Re: “AIDS Talks on Campuses Discouraged, Teachers Say” (Oct. 29):

Why do intelligent people disagree about what “education” means in sex education classes? I believe there has been a distortion (perhaps unintentional) of the truth.

Sex education programs promote condom use each time a person has sex. This assumes they provide 100% protection. Not true.

The Medical Institute of Sexual Health in Austin, Texas, has a slide program that depicts photographs of sexually transmitted diseases on the body. Accompanying information is provided about the most common STDs--how they are transmitted, the symptoms and treatment available--as well as contraceptive effectiveness. From this presentation it becomes obvious that postponing sexual activity until marriage is the only safe sex.

To promote condoms as 100% protection is doing a disservice to our young people and it could have deadly results.

PEARL HAMMERAND, Ojai

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In reference to “AIDS Talks on Campuses Discouraged, Teachers Say” (Oct. 29), I would like to say two things:

First, AIDS education saves lives, and it is reprehensible to discard the message just because the messenger doesn’t fit someone’s ideas of propriety. Unfortunately for the squeamish, not every AIDS educator is a nun with a Ph.D., who contracted HIV through some act of pious self-sacrifice. Most AIDS victims are just average, everyday people. But all have a vitally important lesson to teach--a lesson that may very well save a teenager’s life.

It doesn’t matter if the speaker is gay, or a drug addict. That speaker is not there to advocate homosexuality or drug abuse, but to advocate AIDS prevention--how to save your own life. I know that some thickly blindered people find words from real life, like “homosexual” and “condom” offensive. But I can honestly say, as a mother, that the unnecessary, preventable death of a child is the most offensive thing I can think of.

Second, I’m very worried about school board trustee Elaine McKearn. Did she really mean her morality would be “jeopardized” by hearing about someone else’s lifestyle? Does she fear contagion, or temptation? If she really fears exposure to someone else’s problems, she needs to see a doctor and find out where her spine went. It has been my experience that personal morals are strengthened by adversity and pain, and the chance to help someone else. Although I must say, I’m not sure that someone so selfish she would deny children life-saving information, just to spare herself discomfort, has any real morals at all.

GLORIA L. FIORINI

Simi Valley