Principal Apologizes for AIDS Assembly

The principal of Moorpark High apologized this week to a group of parents angry that the school staged an assembly on AIDS/HIV prevention two weeks ago that violated the district’s curriculum guidelines on sex education.

Principal Max Friedman, Assistant Principal Mike Agnitch and representatives of Kaiser Permanente, which staged the Feb. 12 presentation, were taken to task Wednesday night for allowing the frank discussion of sexual issues.

The school’s failure to notify parents and some of the content of a skit shown during the assembly breached the district’s abstinence-based sex-education guidelines that were established in 1993.

Additionally, the three dozen parents who attended the meeting in the school’s library complained about the administration’s failure to give them an opportunity to pull their children from the event, an omission that violates a state board of education code.

Friedman apologized numerous times.

“As long as I’m principal here, this will not happen again,” he said. “I do apologize. To some of you I know that’s not enough, but that’s all I can do.”

One person in the audience called for his resignation. “In my mind, he should be terminated,” Rod Sieg said. “I want action taken by the board of education against this man.”

Although Kaiser officials maintain the show is abstinence-based, it does discuss ways to prevent contracting the disease when having oral and anal sex.

Friedman admitted that no one on his staff previewed the show’s content before it was shown to the students.