San Francisco Chronicle (SF); Thursday, October 10, 1991
Michael McCabe, Chronicle Staff Writer

"Once you got them, then you can go do what you have to do," said one 15-year-old junior, surrounded by three of his buddies in front of Balboa High School. "But they better be good stuff. We don't want cheap ones that break."

That positive view of the value of free, school-supplied condoms was typical of remarks by dozens of students surveyed during their noon break. Most thought the school board's decision Tuesday night was long overdue.

In becoming the first Bay Area school district to make free condoms available on campus for high school students, San Francisco joins several school districts nationwide that are trying to cut soaring rates of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers. Other Bay Area school districts have rejected such proposals, most recently Hayward Unified and Tamalpais Union High.

Under the San Francisco plan, parents will have the option of barring their children from receiving condoms or other forms of birth control.

But many students said teenagers are having sex without condoms in part because they are afraid of talking about the subject with their parents.

"Kids are having sex age 12 on up, and they don't go asking for condoms because they're afraid of their mom," said one 16-year-old who, because she did not use condoms, said she now finds herself the mother of a six-month-old girl.

"Kids are becoming mommas all over the place around here, just like me."

Most spoke of the need for condoms to prevent pregnancy rather than to prevent disease, which the school board cited as the primary reason to start dispensing condoms. At the school board meeting, city health officials said the rate of teenagers with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, doubles every 12 to 18 months.

The school board also agreed to distribute other, unspecified forms of birth control at a county- sponsored medical clinic at Balboa High School. That plan could start by the end of the current semester.

The total cost is still to be determined. Some speakers at the school board meeting opposed to the condom-distribution plan cited the district's lack of money. The school district laid off teachers last year and faces more cutbacks.

Other opponents said distributing condoms and other contraceptives would send students the message that the school approves of their having sex.

Not all the students interviewed yesterday thought free condoms at school would solve much.

"People won't use them anyway," said one female senior at Balboa High School. "They look at condoms and think they're a waste of time and money."

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