Subject: AIDS education in jeopardy!
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 09:12:08 -0400

Call, write, fax or visit state Senator Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) and
demand that he withdraw his support of the deadly Assembly Bill 2248. This
legislation will severely restrict access to AIDS prevention instruction in
California's public schools and will promote violence towards Queers and
people with AIDS!

Senator Quentin Kopp (8th District)
363 El Camino Real, #205
South San Francisco, CA 94080
Phone: (415) 952-5666
Fax (San Francisco office): (415) 589-5953
Fax (Sacramento office): (916) 327-2186

...while you're at it contact Carole Migden's office and inquire why a Queer
Assembly member would keep so silent about such a discriminatory and
dangerous revision to AIDS education. Where's your public statement of
opposition to AB 2248 Carole?

Assemblywoman Carole Migden (13th District)
1700 California Street, Suite 340
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: (415) 557-0784
Fax: (415) 557-8936

ACT UP! FIGHT AIDS!

==========

San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 15
Reprinted with permission.

'Compassion' Restored to AIDS Bill
-------------------------------
Callers demand that restrictive measure retain provision

By Nanette Asimov
Chronicle Staff Writer

After being barraged by angry callers, embarrassed state lawmakers decided
yesterday against trying to yank a legal requirement that AIDS be taught
"with compassion" in the public schools.

Killing the phrase had been part of a controversial bill now making its way
through the state Legislature. The legislation would require parental consent
for public school students to learn about sexually transmitted diseases.
Currently, parents may withhold their children from those lessons but don't
have to grant permission.

Lawmakers backing the measure heard loudly yesterday from voters with little
compassion for legislating a lack of compassion.

By 6 a m., callers had already awakened the bill's co-author, independent
state Senator Quentin Kopp of San Francisco, after a story appeared in The
Chronicle. Kopp said he had not known the bill would end the "compassion"
requirement until The Chronicle told him about it on Monday.

Kopp then conveyed the complaints to Republican Assemblyman Steve Baldwin of
El Cajon, who introduced the bill, and to state Attorney General Dan Lungren,
who sponsored it. "I've advised the attorney general's office that the
deletion is counterproductive," Kopp said.

Steve Tagliano, a Lungren spokesman, said he did not know how the language
ever disappeared. "When we initially drafted that legislation," he said. "the
language was in. Somewhere between when we drafted it and now, it was lined
out."

State law says that "AIDS education must be taught with compassion about
people with HIV."

The part of the bill that would end that requirement was apparently added in
Baldwin's office, where aide Dana Cody explained that the Assemblyman did not
like the rule because "it was being used to justify teaching about homosexual
practices in graphic detail."

Yesterday, Baldwin put the sentence back in-with a qualifier. A second
sentence was added to the bill saying, "This language shall not be construed
as a reason to advocate drug use, particular sexual acts or lifestyles."

Another Baldwin aide, Dale Webster, said, "This is all in response to calls.
We were getting a lot of calls regarding this."

The change, however, did not soothe opponents of the entire bill.

"They're just trying to throw us a bone and hoping that we'll accept it, when
the real issue here is AIDS education," said Todd Swindell of ACT UP San
Francisco, which began a campaign against the bill last night at the city's
Board of Education meeting.

School board member Dan Kelly, a pediatrician, said he was pleased by the
decision, but said the bill is still a bad idea.

"We don't need to establish a precedent where to take a class you need to
have prior approval," he said. "Are you going to do that for political
science? Geography? History? Many courses address areas that are
controversial, and it's important to allow free discussion and full access to
information. This bill goes against that."

The bill is expected to be considered by the Assembly Appropriations
Committee on May 22 in Sacramento.

====================

San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 15
Reprinted with permission.

S.F. School Board Opposes AIDS Education Revision

By Tara Shioya
Chronicle Staff Writer

The San Francisco School Board voted unanimously last night to oppose pending
state legislation that would rewrite the rules on AIDS education in public
schools.

And in an unexpected move after much emotional testimony from the public, the
board also agreed to reconsider the decision announced by Superintendent Bill
Rojas to "reconstitute" three San Francisco schools by removing their entire
administrative and teaching staffs. He announced the reconstitution last
Thursday for Starr King Elementary, Aptos Middle School and Balboa High.

More than 400 community activists, parents, educators and students filled the
Everett Middle School auditorium to protest the AIDS legislation as well as a
recent decision to transfer teachers and administrators from the three
schools and the earlier firing of top administrators at Mission High.

"We're very happy," Michael Bellefountaine, one of 25 AIDS activists at the
meeting from ACT UP San Francisco, said of the board's decision. "It's a
first step. But we want to see them actively oppose this said bill. It's a
matter of life or death."

The bill proposed by Assemblyman Steve Baldwin, R-El Cajon, and co-authored
by Senator Quentin Kopp, independent-San Francisco, would require parental
consent for students to learn about any sexually transmitted disease.
Currently, school districts are required to tell parents about courses on
AIDS prevention, and parents can keep their children from such lessons.

Only three people at the meeting spoke in favor of the bill. Their comments
were met with hisses and jeers and cries of "bigot."

"This is a simple change in the law which enables parents to actually find
out what is going on in the
classroom," said Bruce Budnick, a parent who protested four years ago when
guest lecturers discussed dildoes and oral sex with a class of 11-year-olds.

Teachers and students also came to protest last week's decision to radically
overhaul administration, teachers and staff at Starr King Elementary, Aptos
Middle School and Balboa High. The process called "reconstitution" is
designed to improve the district's poorest performing schools.

The board last night said it will study the issue, including past
reconstitutions, and vote on the issue at its next meeting May 28.

The Comprehensive School Improvement Program is based on a district-wide
evaluation that considers several criteria, including attendance, dropout
rates and academic scores. Under the program, students remain at their
schools but all employees lose their jobs. They are guaranteed posts in the
district, but if they wish to return to their old schools they must reapply
for those openings. The teachers union says the process is too rushed and too
severe.

Other students and parents urged the board to reverse its decision in
February to fire three Mission High administrators by July and to urge the
district to reinstate more than a dozen long-term substitute teachers at that
school. Teachers were shocked by the decision to sack principal Lupe Arabolos
and vice principals Jan Hudson and Peter Long-an administrative team that has
helped improve the struggling school.

The board took no action on that issue.

====================

San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, May 15
Reprinted with permission.

Chronicle Editorial: No Time to Retreat On AIDS Education

One of the most unwarranted bills currently before the California Legislature
is a measure by Republican Assemblyman Steve Baldwin of El Cajon that would
require parental permission before any student in the public school system
could participate in AIDS education.

The bill also includes a gratuitous and disturbing provision that would
eliminate a state requirement that all HIV prevention efforts "emphasize
compassion for persons with AIDS."

Leaving aside for a moment the issue of the importance of instructing
students about AIDS to prevent needless deaths, procedures already in place
in no way leave out parents.

Current law requires school districts to inform parents about courses on AIDS
prevention and to give them the option of pulling their children out of class
on days that such instruction takes place.

As with other materials regarding sex, many schools invite parents to review
the materials-from books to charts to props and videotapes-before deciding if
they want their children included.

That process has worked well. Interested parents know what their children are
being taught, they can remove the youngsters from the classes if they wish
and schools are not bogged down in paperwork.

We respect the right of those parents to have their children learn about AIDS
at home, in church or other nonschool settings.

However, not all parents are paying close attention to what goes on in the
classroom. This legislation would rob many students whose parents-through
laziness or lack of caring, not because of any thoughtful objection to the
course-routinely fail to respond to school correspondence.

The fatal AIDS virus is spreading more swiftly than ever among American
youngsters, with half of all new infections occurring in people younger than
25. What could be clearer evidence that straightforward information about the
cause, effects and prevention of AIDS is desperately needed and that there
currently is a grave lack of such information and follow-up discussion?

The issue is not one of parental rights, as San Francisco Independent Senator
Quentin Kopp, a co-author of the bill, contends. Parental rights are already
established.

The issue is education's role in informing students with the goal of saving
young people's lives. Baldwin's legislation would seriously hamper those
efforts.

As Dr. Chuck Willbelsman, chief of the teen clinic at Kaiser Permanente in
San Francisco said, "This is opening the door to more irresponsible behavior
by students."

The state should be doing everything it can to eradicate AIDS, not promoting
legislation that champions ignorance.

==========

San Francisco Examiner
Wednesday, May 15
Reprinted with permission.

School board opposes bill on AIDS class
-----------------------------
Kopp's measure would require students to get parental consent

By Ray Delgado
of the Examiner Staff

The San Francisco school board has voted unanimously to oppose a bill
co-sponsored by state Sen. Quentin Kopp that would require parental consent
for students to receive AIDS education.

After listening to impassioned pleas from AIDS activists at its meeting
Tuesday night, the board passed a resolution pledging to continue current
policy on AIDS education, giving parents the option of withdrawing their
children if they desire.

"I do want to support efforts to make it easier for parents to prevent the
materials if they choose . . . but I am in favor of this resolution," board
member Jill Wynns said.

Current law requires school districts to notify parents about courses on AIDS
prevention and offer them the chance to withdraw their children if they
object.

Kopp's bill would require parental consent for students to take courses on
AIDS and sex education. It was recently amended to kill a requirement in
current law that says AIDS education must be taught with compassion for
people with HIV, but Kopp said Tuesday that the amendment would be removed.

Kopp, I-San Francisco, sponsored the bill with Republican Assemblyman Steve
Baldwin of El Cajon.

In approving the resolution, the school board vowed to challenge the bill if
it becomes law.

"That's preposterous," Kopp said. "If the bill is enacted, what legal basis
is there to challenge it?"

Kopp said he believed the bill would restore parents' ability to control what
their children are taught in public schools.

"The fundamental issue is who controls the kids' education, the parents or
the state?" Kopp said. "I don't think the government is a surrogate for
parenthood."

ACT-UP San Francisco member David Pasquarelli applauded the board's vote and
condemned Kopp for sponsoring the measure.

"I think the decision was a little overdue," Pasquarelli said. "This bill's
been around a long time. San Francisco needs to take a strong stance against
bigotry, and Quentin Kopp should be ashamed."

Several people spoke in favor of the bill at the school board meeting,
including Bruce Budnick, the father of an 11-year-old girl at Everett Middle
School.

"It enables parents to actually find out what's going on in the classroom,"
Budnick said to loud jeers and hissing. "The way we're changing this will
enhance education."

Many in the auditorium came to the meeting to oppose the reconstitution of
three San Francisco schools and Superintendent Bill Rojas' refusal to rehire
three top administrators at Mission High School.

The board was unable to take any action on those matters because they were
not on the agenda, said board member Dan Kelly.