Patient Discusses AIDS With Students

Lamar Johnson said he takes 30 pills a day to alleviate his AIDS symptoms.

If it weren’t for the medication, he couldn’t walk, said Johnson, who nevertheless needs a cane.

On Wednesday, Johnson told students at Kennedy High School in Granada Hills about his life and how to avoid contracting HIV.

About 900 students attended the event that marked World AIDS Day and received bookmarks listing Valley sites where free HIV testing is available.

Johnson, 40, president of the HIV services organization Hands United Together, said he was diagnosed with AIDS earlier this year.

Nine years ago, when he learned he had HIV, doctors told him he had two years to live, at most.

“[The disease’s] only mission is to kill you,” Johnson told students assembled in the auditorium.

“If you don’t protect yourself, you might ruin your chances of having a future.”

Davyd McCoy, executive director of the Van Nuys-based nonprofit group, read to students from his book about people with HIV, which he said is based on true accounts.

Many students gasped when McCoy revealed that one of his characters was a 13-year-old girl.

“We’ve got to hit them now,” McCoy said. “They need reality.”

According to the San Fernando Valley HIV Consortium, 688,000 people were reported to have HIV or AIDS in the United States last year.

Several students said they learned something from the presentation.

“I’m going to stick with abstinence for sure,” said Heather Perry, 16. “I don’t want to take any chances.”