School Board to Consider Plans for Clinic : Health: Opponents say it will end up as a family-planning facility, instead of providing care for poor students.

SANTA ANA —  Last November, Grant Elementary School teacher Thais Sainz noticed that one of her kindergarten students was wincing in pain. She went to comfort the boy and soon realized that fluid was draining from his right ear.

“He had a ruptured eardrum,” Sainz explained, “and his face showed such pain.”

Teachers and administrators at the school say such incidents are not uncommon at Grant, a school that serves mostly Latino students from a low-income area of the city.

“We have very special needs at this school and in this school district,” Sainz said. “As teachers, we are trying to provide a child with a good education and often end up also having to worry about whether they are coming to school in good health.”

Due largely to situations similar to the one at Grant, the Santa Ana Unified School District board on Tuesday will consider moving ahead with plans to develop a pilot program that would establish a school-based health clinic within the district--a facility that would be the first of its kind in Orange County.

The proposed clinic would focus on students from low-income families, from kindergarten through the fifth grade, whose learning might be affected because of inadequate health care, said Lucinda G. Hundley, director of special education and health services.

Late last year, the district conducted health screenings of first- and fifth-graders at Grant and Roosevelt elementary schools to pinpoint health problems of students from low-income families.

Through the screenings, it was revealed that 88% of the 107 students examined had some type of untreated health problem, including ear, nose and throat maladies, viral and bacterial infections, nutritional deficiencies and skin disorders. More than half had dental problems.

“Many of these families don’t have health benefits at all and don’t qualify for county services,” said school board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji. “It’s just a shame because if you don’t feel well, can’t breathe or have holes in your teeth, how are you going to learn? That’s our concern.”

District officials say the clinic would be financed completely through outside resources and would cost about $150,000 a year to operate.

Since the proposal was made public last December, it has drawn fire from a vocal group of citizens from various cities who say such clinics inevitably end up distributing birth-control devices and making abortion referrals.

Westminster resident Viola Floth, who is largely responsible for mobilizing a coalition against the idea, said the school district is overstepping its bounds.

“It is not the school’s position to fulfill all of the ills of society,” Floth said. “They have not been given that mandate by the people. We need to get more nurses into the schools and need to teach the kids to use the system that they live in.”

Opponents have packed several school board meetings to lobby against the proposal, much to the dismay of district officials who insist that family-planning issues will not be addressed through the pilot program.

“It’s unfortunate that special-interest groups have to get involved,” Supt. Rudy M. Castruita said. “In my opinion, a lot of the information has been distorted. We’ve always said that we are not going to spend one penny for the services and never alluded to contraception or abortion issues. The issue is trying to get our kids healthy so they can be better learners in the classroom.”

Last month, Catholic Msgr. Jaime Soto, liaison to the Latino community for the Diocese of Orange, resigned from a 20-member clinic advisory panel because of the birth-control and abortion-referral issue.

Hundley said birth control and abortion were addressed on a draft of the clinic’s policies after opponents demanded to know how the medical staff would respond if a pregnant minor sought advice. Because the clinic would serve elementary school students through the fifth grade, Hundley said pregnancy would be a “low-incidence” to non-existent issue.

The concerns of critics have gotten the attention of board Trustee Richard C. Hernandez, who said he is still unsure whether he will vote in favor of proceeding with the proposal.