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On May 29, Kaiser Permanente will stage its award-winning AIDS education play "Secrets" at Century High School in Santa Ana, with a simultaneous live videocast using Pacific Bell GroupVideo to three other high schools and two libraries around California. After the play, Century and the remote viewing sites will participate in an interactive discussion with the performers, professional actors employed by Kaiser Permanente and trained to answer questions about HIV/AIDS.
"We only have two `Secrets' troupes in California, 5,000 high schools to visit, and a rising infection rate among teens," said Lisa Beezley, director of the play. "We could provide schools with `Secrets' on videotape rather than a live performance, but a tape would not allow the kids to interact with the actors, which is a critical part of the educational process. Kaiser Permanente is interested in videoconferencing because it will greatly expand the number of students we can reach with one performance, and still allows us to preserve the question and answer process."
A sense of urgency has underscored the AIDS education issue since the White House Office of National AIDS Policy released a sobering report in March that said the virus is spreading more swiftly than ever among American youngsters, with nearly one-quarter of new infections occurring in people between the ages of 13-19.
"Because there is not yet a cure for AIDS or a vaccine against HIV, education is the key to preventing the spread of the epidemic," said Beezley. "But too many young people are either not receiving the information they need or do not have the skills to use that information to protect themselves. That is why Kaiser Permanente is exploring videoconferencing and other technologies that will hasten the process of educating at-risk youth about the disease and how to prevent it."
In a related project, the HMO is putting background information about `Secrets' and its other educational theater productions on an interactive Web site on the Internet.
The harnessing of communications technology in the battle against HIV infection comes at a time when the issue of AIDS education in California public schools is being hotly debated. A controversial bill now making its way through the state Legislature would require parents to give their consent for students to learn about any sexually transmitted disease. Current law requires school districts to tell parents about courses on AIDS prevention and give them a chance to withhold their children from those lessons.
If the bill becomes law, it would give California one of the most restrictive policies in the nation for educating students about sexually transmitted diseases.
The high schools participating in the special `Secrets' performance -- Century High, Manual Arts High in Los Angeles, McLane High in Fresno, and Mendocino High -- are equipped with videoconferencing capability as model sites in Pacific Bell's Education First program.
Two other sites also will participate in the groundbreaking performance: Pasadena Public Library, another Education First model site, and the Malcolm X branch of the San Diego Public Library. Both sites will host students from nearby high schools.
Pacific Bell's Education First is a $100-million program to help provide every school and library in California with a digital on-ramp to the information superhighway by 2000. The program offers free installation and one year of free service of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), along with technology workshops for teachers and librarians, assistance with applications development and discounts on equipment.
To date, Education First has wired more than 1,000 schools and libraries with high-speed digital lines. That number will triple by the end of 1996.
Pacific Bell is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a diversified communications company based in San Francisco. Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Region is a prepaid, health maintenance organization (HMO) serving 2.2 million members from Bakersfield to San Diego.
CONTACT: Pacific Bell Rebecca Weill, 415/542-4640 or Kaiser Permanente Pamela Dean, 818/405-5534
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