Subject: ACT UP at SF School Board
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 10:01:31 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE:  May 15, 1996 

CONTACTS: 
Michael Bellefountaine:  (415) 487-9954
Todd Swindell: (415) 864-8355
  
SF School Board & Supervisors Come Out Strong Against AB 2248
-----------------------------------
ACT UP SF demands that Senator Kopp withdraw support of deadly AIDS education
bill

San Francisco - Both the San Francisco School Board and Board of Supervisors,
under pressure from that city's militant chapter of the AIDS Coalition To
Unleash Power (ACT UP), drafted formal resolutions condemning Assembly Bill
2248 which seeks to severely restrict AIDS prevention instruction in
California's public schools. In addition, both Boards vowed to "employ every
means necessary" to oppose the bill and announced they would defy its
dictates should it become law.

Tuesday evening, May 14th, twenty ACT UP SF members, clad in bright red
shirts emblazoned with biohazard symbols, marched with signs into the packed
SF School Board meeting at Everett Middle School chanting "More AIDS deaths
is what's in store if Quentin's bill hits the floor!" and "2-2-4-8  kills
young people gay and straight!" Many AIDS activists held placards and stood
in silence throughout the meeting space while other heckled and hissed at
conservative Christian backers of the misguided piece of legislation. Over a
dozen members of ACT UP and other AIDS advocacy groups addressed the school
board urging them to take all possible measures to defeat this deadly bill.

AB 2248 forces all public school students to receive parental permission to
learn how to protect themselves from HIV and makes unauthorized AIDS
prevention instruction in public schools a punishable violation. This
legislation creates an atmosphere of fear around AIDS prevention by
implementing mechanisms to fine schools and fire teachers that answer
questions about HIV or provide safe sex information without a parent's
consent. Even worse, the bill promotes discrimination against PWAs by
eliminating a state requirement that all HIV prevention efforts "emphasize
compassion for persons with AIDS." The bill, introduced by right-wing
Assembly Member Steven Baldwin and coauthored by Senator Quentin Kopp, has
passed the Education Committee and currently awaits review in the
Appropriations Committee. 

ACT UP members stress that their visit to the SF School Board was only a mild
prelude to the series of direct action and civil resistance they have planned
statewide to raise awareness about AIDS prevention and to kill this bill.
AIDS activists say they will now turn their attention to pressuring the
bill's coauthor, San Francisco State Senator Quentin Kopp, to with draw his
support of AB 2248.

"Make no mistake, if AB 2248 becomes law in California it will have deadly
ramifications across the country as other state legislatures, prompted by
Christian supremacist hate groups, scramble to gut AIDS prevention
instruction in public schools," warns ACT UP SF member Floyd Collins. "It is
an embarrassment that this bill got its start in San Francisco by that
vicious monster Quentin Kopp. The militant activists of ACT UP SF are
determined to do whatever is necessary to stop AB 2248 dead in its tracks
before it has the chance to kill young people."

ACT UP San Francisco urges members of the gay, lesbian and AIDS community to
call, write or visit Quentin Kopp and demand that he immediately withdraw
sponsorship of AB 2248. Kopp's address is 363 El Camino real, #205; South San
Francisco, CA 94080. His phone number is (415) 952-5666.

AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power * ACT UP San Francisco
1388 Haight Street, #218 / San Francisco, CA 94117
PHONE: (415) 522-2907 / FAX: (415) 834-0243 / EMAIL: [email-masked]

==========

San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, May 14th
Page A-1; Reprinted with permission.

Dispute Over AIDS Education
--------------------------
Kopp's bill calls for parental consent

By Nanette Asimov
Chronicle Staff Writer

A bill quietly making its way through the state Legislature would overhaul
the rules on AIDS education in public schools by requiring parental consent
for students to learn about any sexually transmitted disease.

The bill also would strike from law the admonishment that "all AIDS education
must be taught with compassion about people with HIV."

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.

But independent state Senator Quentin Kopp of San Francisco, who co-authored
the new bill introduced by Republican Assembly member Steve Baldwin of El
Cajon, said that isn't enough.

"A veto is unrealistic," he said. "Most parents are very busy and are unable
to follow every minute of instruction of their children in public schools. So
it's a myth to believe that this power will be exercised."

While Kopp and Baldwin characterize the bill as an issue of parental rights
and responsibility, some physicians condemn it as an issue of life and death.

"My God, this is opening the door to more irresponsible behavior by
students," said Dr. Chuck Wibbelsman, chief of the Teenage Clinic at Kaiser
Permanente in San Francisco. "This would probably result in a lot of children
and adolescents being excluded just because parents did not get the
information or maybe didn't understand it. So instead of education,; we'd be
increasing the amount of ignorance. This would really be a backwards step."

Taking the opposition several steps further are AIDS activists who are
labeling the bill "an exercise in murder" and vowing to stop it "by any means
necessary."

"It's unbelievable that in 1996, when AIDS is the No. 1 killer of young
people, California's lawmakers are erecting obstacles to prevent vital
information from reaching students whose lives are in peril," said Kevin
Parker of ACT UP-San Francisco.

In March, a White House report said half of all new HIV infections in the
nation are among people It younger than 25. And in California, 173 teenagers
had AIDS as of December, as did 2,150 people ages 20 to 24, according to the
state Department of Health Services. The AIDS rate among those in their 20s
is significant because they may have been infected as teenagers, say health
educators.

Opposition Planned

To fight the bill, ACT UP members are planning protests before school boards
around the state- beginning tonight in San Francisco. "If the San Francisco
school board isn't going to oppose this bill, no one else will," said Michael
Bellefountaine of ACT UP. "We'll start here, then spread out."

San Francisco already seems a shoo-in. Warned about the protest board members
expressed strong sympathy, with Angie Fa promising to explore the possibility
of having the school district defy the parent permission rule if it becomes
law. One board member, pediatrician Dan Kelly accused the bill's authors of
being ignorant about the need for AIDS education and homophobic for killing
the reference to compassion for people with AIDS.

'Compassion' Deleted

"I'm personally disappointed in Quentin Kopp," Kelly said. "If you have to
bend over backwards to take out the word 'compassion,' then you're extremely
vindictive and mean-spirited. You can't put that in any other light but
homophobia."

Kopp said he was unaware of the removal of the sentence. Dana Cody, an aide
to Assemblyman Baldwin, said it had been taken out because "it was being used
to justify teaching about homosexual practices in graphic detail."

But Kopp downplayed that issue, saying the more important aspect of the bill
is parental choice over sensitive subjects.

The bill evolved from an incident in a San Francisco middle school four years
ago, when two guest lecturers discussed dildos and oral sex with a classroom
full of 11-year-olds.

Bruce Budnick, the father of a girl in that class, has since become an
activist for parental control over sex education in the schools and has
pushed strongly for such a law. "This is excellent legislation," he said.
"It's a simple yet profound change to the existing laws-no different from
getting a permission slip signed for a field trip."

The San Francisco school board meets tonight at 7 o'clock at Everett Middle
School at 450 Church Street. 

==========

Resolution unanimously passed by San Francisco School Board against AB 2248

First Reading

Subject: Resolution No.
IN SUPPORT OF AIDS EDUCATION
- Commissioner Angie Fa

          WHEREAS: It is the responsibility of California public schools to
educate students; and

          WHEREAS: AIDS education saves lives; and

          WHEREAS: Teenagers are the segment of the population now most
likely to become infected with HIV; and

          WHEREAS: Any new limits to AIDS education in the California public
schools would result in a public health disaster, with even larger numbers of
teenagers exposed to HIV, and becoming HIV positive in their teens and
twenties; and

          WHEREAS: Compassion towards people with AIDS is a crucial part of
AIDS education; and

          WHEREAS: Parental notification is an important part of sex
education in California public schools;

          THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San
Francisco
Unified School District opposes efforts to amend the California State
Education Code, which apparently would make the parental notification
provisions for AIDS education and venereal disease education different than
the parental notification for sex education; and

          FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San
Francisco Unified School District opposes efforts to change AIDS education,
to remove compassion towards people with AIDS from AIDS education; and

          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San
Francisco
Unified School District opposes any efforts to make it harder for young
people to receive effective AIDS education, and

          FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San
Francisco
Unified School District join with other school districts to explore
challenges to AB 2248, should it become law and limit AIDS education.

5/14/96

==========

Resolution opposing AB 2248 by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors:

Opposing AB 2248 and urging San Francisco's lobbyists and representatives in
the State Legislature to oppose AB 2248

          WHEREAS, San Francisco has been a leader in HIV/AIDS prevention
education and our schools have developed national and international models
for effective teaching of sex education and STD prevention; and

          WHEREAS, AB 2248 encourages attacks on schools offering HIV/AIDS
education, STD prevention, and sex education programs by mandating funding
cuts for any perceived violation of its guidelines; and

          WHEREAS, Educational experts worldwide agree that providing age
appropriate education about HIV/AIDS and issues of sexuality can literally
save young peoples' lives; and

          WHEREAS, AB 2248 seeks to impose unneeded, obstructionist
regulations on schools offering HIV/AIDS and sex education when current rules
provide ample opportunity for parents to make decisions regarding their
child's participation in such classes; and

          WHEREAS, State Senator Kopp has unfortunately chosen to ignore San
Francisco's record of leadership and support for aggressive HIV/AIDS
prevention education and comprehensive sex education in our schools by
becoming co-author of this ill-advised proposal; now, therefore, be it

          RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of
San Francisco opposes enactment of AB 2248; and it be

          FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors urges the city
lobbyist and our representatives in the state legislature to employ every
means necessary to oppose adoption of AB 2248 and urges Senator Kopp to
withdraw his support from this misguided proposal.