Miami Herald (MH) - Sunday, May 12, 1991
Charisse L. Grant; Herald Staff Writer

Should fifth-graders be told how to use condoms?

"I'm not comfortable with that," Dade School Board member Michael Krop said during a recent School Board discussion of Dade's new AIDS curriculum.

Many other adults -- teachers and parents -- are uneasy about explicit AIDS education, even as the school system tries to bring some level of knowledge about the disease to each of Dade's 290,000 public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Until now, AIDS education was supposed to be taught in fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th grades -- although a study shows many teachers at those levels didn't cover the subject because they were uncomfortable with it.

The new program not only requires AIDS education in every grade, it pushes for more candid discussion of how to prevent the sexually transmitted disease.

The board now endorses the program and proponents praise it, but fear it will fail if teachers are afraid to teach it.

"By itself, the curriculum means nothing," said Pedro Zamora, a 19-year-old Dade graduate infected with the AIDS virus who talks with students about AIDS. "You're always going to have the teacher that doesn't feel comfortable talking about sex, about AIDS, about death."

While some teachers have no problem candidly discussing dealing with AIDS, others say they're opposed to schools delving into subjects they believe are best left to parents.

"It should be taught at home," said Alethea McNeal, the resource teacher for AIDS education at Citrus Grove Elementary. "They know the level their children are at. The schools should be teaching the reading, writing and math."

If parents don't or won't talk to their kids, "it should be left up the clergymen," she said. Parents can have their children be excused from sex education discussions.

"Teachers are most afraid of parents and they're most afraid that they'll be embarrassed themselves," said Marilyn Volker, a sex educator who helps train Dade teachers.

A 1990 survey showed only 75 percent of the fifth- and sixth-grade teachers in Dade were teaching about AIDS. The figure was 95 percent for seventh and eighth grade and 96 percent for 10th.

Under the new program, teachers will get increased training to make them more comfortable and knowledgeable about the subject.

Judging from interviews, students are the least embarrassed about using the classroom for discussions of issues such as AIDS and sex.

"With someone who is trained to do this, you can open up to them more," said Kharel Weir, 12, a seventh-grader at Southwood Middle.

"With parents, you ask a question and they might jump to conclusions," said Traviata Cox, 13, another Southwood seventh-grader.

With AIDS spreading among teens at an alarming rate, providing kids with information has become an issue of life and death.

AIDS education is part of the Dade school system's human growth and development curriculum, which runs four to six weeks. Critics said the old lessons were not extensive or frank enough to help kids make the decisions they need to cope with the realities of teen-age sex.

"They kept it at a scientific level," said Moises Rodriguez, a junior at Miami Beach High. "They didn't go into more common terms."

Studies show most Dade teen-agers do not heed school district policy, which stresses abstinence. Many start having sex young, and don't practice safe sex. A 1990 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control of 1,800 ninth- to 12th-graders in Dade found:

* 63 percent had had sexual intercourse. About half hadn't used a condom the last time to prevent sexually transmitted diseases -- yet 87 percent knew sex without a condom was a high-risk behavior.

* 18 percent were under age 13 the first time they had sexual intercourse. The figure for boys was 34 percent.

* 78 percent said they were taught about AIDS in school.

* 51 percent thought you could get AIDS by donating blood.

As of March, 670 cases of AIDS among U.S. youths aged 13 to 19 had been reported to the CDC. Another 2,963 cases involved children under 13. In Dade, there were 170 cases reported among children under 13. Only 10 are reported among teens 13 to 19.

But HIV, which causes the breakdown of the immune system, has an average incubation period of more than 10 years. The number of Dade cases among people ages 20 to 29 -- likely to have contracted the virus as teens -- is 898.

"We have this saying, that AIDS is transmitted by sex, drugs and ignorance," said Fleur Sack, a family physician who also educates teachers about AIDS education. "Unfortunately there's still a lot of ignorance."

Under the new curriculum, lessons will begin early. Kindergarteners will be familiarized with terms such as AIDS and HIV. AIDS will be mentioned in discussions of general issues like good health, how diseases are spread and what it feels like to be sick and grieve.

Students will learn AIDS can't be transmitted by casual contact. Activities will teach them what they should and shouldn't do if someone is bleeding.

In fourth grade, students will start talking about how AIDS can be spread through dirty needles. In a recent series of much-publicized incidents, children at two elementary schools stumbled upon used syringes. At one, three boys went on a "sticking spree."

In fifth grade, lessons become more explicit.

Biscayne Gardens Elementary teacher Mike Turner last week asked his class to name terms they didn't understand in the book, What Young People Should Know About AIDS.

Homosexual, bisexual, condoms, masturbation and intercourse, they said. Turner began with a basic definition of sexual intercourse. Before the hour lesson was over, he had talked about oral sex and anal sex and why the latter was most risky in terms of AIDS. They discussed other sexually transmitted diseases, and how HIV is transmitted through the bloodstream and through sex.

When one boy correctly identified condoms as a way to reduce the risk of AIDS, Turner emphasized that abstinence was the only sure prevention. When snickers erupted over a comment about homosexuality, he warned them against passing judgment on people.

The kids' questions seemed endless:

"If two women have sexual relations, can they get pregnant?"

"What happens if a man and a man have sexual relations and one man goes into the hospital and has an operation to change to a woman. Can they get pregnant?"

"If a male and female have sexual relations and one has AIDS and they have a baby will the baby have AIDS?"

Andreliza Pierre asked one of the most poignant:

"If you have AIDS, how long does it take to die?"

Turner tries to answer all questions, sticking close to the written guidelines, even when he doesn't happen to agree.

For example, he knows telling kids sex is only acceptable among married people probably confuses those whose parents aren't married.

"I tell them that this is what Dade County says you should know and I can teach you," he said. He hasn't been briefed on the new curriculum, which doesn't place as much emphasis on marriage. "If they give me more freedom I'll take it."

How far is too far?

Some elementary teachers say they've done condom use demonstrations, using two fingers or a banana. Others believe that sends kids the message that sex is acceptable.

Speakers who have talked to older students encounter frank questions. Students will say straight out: The condom breaks when I use it -- how do you put these things on right?

Teachers are encouraged to bring in outside experts to talk about issues with which they don't feel comfortable. One recently ran into trouble with parents at Southwood Middle.

Southwood is part of a special project, where a psychologist and private specialist work closely with teachers on the human growth and development curriculum. The program tries to gauge students' knowledge and values.

Lynn Leight, a nationally known authority on teen sexuality, lets students anonymously submit questions during her presentations. She brings models of the uterus and a clear plastic phallus to help explain anatomy, adolescent development and medical problems.

Among the questions at an April presentation at Southwood: How is an abortion performed? How do you put on a condom?

Leight used the models to answer both.

"I in no way tried to influence the children's opinions, but I gave them factual information, not myths," Leight said.

A parent in the classroom believed Leight went too far. Southwood and district administrators decided Leight shouldn't do any more presentations this school year to avoid jeopardizing the whole project.

Associate Superintendent Frank de Varona praised Leight, but said perhaps she went too far on the abortion question. He said pulling her from the classroom won't hurt the special project.

But the incident had a chilling effect. When school psychologist Michelle Kavanaugh took Leight's place in the classroom last Wednesday, the topic was puberty and choices about sex. Parents were there.

She said she was less frank than usual.

"Subconsciously, I guess they got to me," she said. In the coming months hundreds of teachers, counselors, coordinators of science, social studies and dropout prevention will go through training workshops. They in turn will teach others.

Dade schools will have new technology next year to help. The state has provided $963 for every middle and high school to purchase a video disc, a player and a computer program that ABC News produced on AIDS. Dade kicked in another $138,000 to buy computers for the software.

The video features segments by Ted Koppel and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. There are interviews with young AIDS patients to whom youths can relate, such as Ryan White.

The computers provide a data base for student research.

So far, there has been little community objection to Dade's push for more candid education. "That's surprised me enormously," de Varona said.

"Perhaps it shows that a lot of people really understand we're talking about an epidemic."

TEACHING ABOUT AIDS

Here's a partial overview of Dade's new AIDS education curriculum and the grades in which different issues are addressed.

THE FACTS ABOUT HIV/AIDS K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Identify HIV as the virus that causes AIDS.

Describe that casual contact doesn't transmit HIV.

Describe HIV transmission patterns and the progression of HIV infection.

PREVENTION OF HIV/AIDS

Identify non-sexual behaviors that must be avoided to prevent HIV infection, such as needle sharing.

Discuss abstinence as the only certain way to avoid sexual transmission of HIV

Discuss proper use of condoms as a way to reduce the chances of

HIV transmission during sex.

TESTING

Identify the test used to detect antibodies to HIV; describe the meaning of positive or negative results.

PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS

Describe what it feels like to be ill; with someone who's ill.

Discuss grief as a normal reaction to loss and/or death and ways to cope with its effects.

SOCIETAL ISSUES

Describe the economic impact of AIDS; its impact on the medical and legal systems.

Describe the impact of AIDS on the family

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Identify sources of education information and help for people living with HIV/AIDS

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1991. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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