School Board’s Ban on AIDS Seminars Sparks Protest

At the first public hearing since a nonprofit foundation was banned from conducting AIDS education seminars at Antelope Valley high schools, about 100 parents and students clashed with the local school board over the action.

After the hearing Wednesday night, the board agreed to study the issue and discuss it again May 15. The board emphasized that while the future of Catalyst is on hold, the district’s health courses include a component on sexual education that includes information about sexually transmitted diseases.

Supporters of the Catalyst Foundation for AIDS Awareness and Care--an off-campus supplemental seminar formally used in the district’s sex education classes--argued that students need honest and sometimes graphic information about the life-or-death issue.

Two months ago, the group was banished by the Antelope Valley Union High School District after a Catalyst lecturer gave an answer that upsets critics in response to a student’s question about oral sex. A lecturer suggested that a condom, a dental dam or plastic wrap should be used as protection.

Although the federally funded, county-approved program provides information on how sexually active teenagers can reduce their chances of getting infected, the program emphasizes abstinence, said Catalyst founder and Executive Director Susan Lawrence.