Report Card

Paul Clinton

To enlighten students about the dangers of HIV and AIDS, the Ocean

View School District has introduced a special course based on materials

supplied by the American Red Cross.

The program began in seventh-grade science classes on Tuesday, after

they were unanimously approved by the school board at a May 21 meeting.

The classes will be taught by district science teachers as a part of

the regular lesson plan. Teachers have been instructed to make the

presentations unemotional, said Karen Colby, the district’s director of

curriculum and instruction.

“It’s really clinical and factual,” she said. “The teachers don’t take

a lot of open-ended questions.”

The material from the Red Cross covers how AIDS affects the human

body, how HIV is transmitted, myths about the deadly disease and other

information. It will be taught as a two-day course, Colby said.

The district is trying out the classes and, based on input provided by

the teachers, will decide whether to implement them for the 2002-03

school year, Colby said.

Many parents have welcomed the idea.

“At that age level, it’s appropriate,” said Theresa Green, who has two

daughters in district schools. “If the children are not educated with the

information, how can they make life choices.”

Green, whose daughters are in the sixth and eighth grade, is also the

president of the district’s PTA chapter.

The course will emphasize the ways to avoid contraction of HIV,

according to a district staff report.

It will highlight sexual abstinence, monogamy and abstinence from

intravenous drug use as the best ways to avoid HIV. It will also deal

with the role of condoms and other contraceptives as ways to prevent the

transmission of the virus.

The district purchased the materials from the Red Cross for $3,082.

The funding comes from a fund of state money given to the district for

instructional materials.

Principals in the district have invited parents to take a look at the

materials that will be used.

Elizabeth Williams, the Marine View Middle School principal, said the

classes would benefit parents who don’t have the time to discuss this

topic with their children.

“Unfortunately, parents don’t always have the time to talk to their

kids about this,” Williams said. “For that reason, we should provide

[these classes].”