Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle (SF); Friday, November 8, 1991
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Quinn had asked Cortines to reconsider the plan, which came about on October 7, when San Francisco became the first Bay Area school district to agree to make free condoms available on high school campuses.
In a cordial two-page letter, Cortines wrote, "Our efforts to address sexually related conditions cannot simply be 'just say no.' "
"(In the plan) we reinforce the choice to abstain from sexual intercourse as a positive choice that offers physical safety and many social and emotional rewards. At the same time, we must not ignore that some of our students have not made that choice and need to know how to protect themselves and their sexual partners from HIV infection and many other sexually transmitted diseases."
Students could receive condoms at several high schools as early as January. One school, Balboa High, has a health clinic on campus, and condoms and other birth-control devices could become available even sooner. Parents will have the option to bar their children from the program.
Two weeks after the unanimous decision by the Board of Education, Quinn wrote a three-page letter to Cortines in which he stated that "even the need to stop the (AIDS) epidemic cannot justify steps which undermine the moral fabric . . . of our youth."
The Rev. Robert McElroy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Archdiocese, said yesterday that he did not expect the archbishop to take the matter further.
"What the archbishop sought to do in sending the letter was contribute to the debate," McElroy said. "He doesn't look at it as his role to march or bring public pressure to bear.
"What the superintendent's letter does is to underscore continuing areas of agreement (such as stressing the importance of abstinence) and, at the same time, it underscores a significant area of disagreement."
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