gonzo
06-16-2006, 10:00 AM
In the past 15 years, New York City public schools have distributed thousands of condoms to high school students, and with them lessons about the importance of safe sex.
Still, a city health department study three years ago found teens weren't necessarily listening. One in four students who said they were sexually active reported they hadn't used a condom the last time they had sex. And nearly 20 percent of the sexually active teens said they had had at least four partners.
Results like those are one of the reasons the city's Department of Education has ramped up its AIDS curriculum in public schools in the past year. Besides providing updated information on treatment, it provides updated lessons on how to prevent it and the real-life dangers AIDS poses to everyone.
"The changing face of AIDS is becoming younger and younger," said Kacie Winsor of the New York AIDS Coalition, who sat on the panel that drafted a revised schools curriculum released last year.
The Department of Education launched its comprehensive push to rewrite the curriculum after Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told a state Assembly hearing that he agreed the AIDS curriculum implemented in 1987 was medically and socially dated.
One school official said that before the curriculum was updated, students had been taught things that were just plain wrong. For example, they were told that having AIDS was tantamount to a "death sentence." Under the updated curriculum, students learn how those with HIV and AIDS can live for many years with the disease and that there are many treatments. At the same time, they are told there still is no cure.
"It's not everything we wanted, but it's definitely a step in the right direction and an improvement from the old curriculum," said Winsor.
Under state guidelines, public schools must provide age-appropriate lessons, though districts have freedom to design the specific curriculum.
In the city, as in many districts around the state, that means that younger students, in kindergarten through third grade, are exposed to general instruction on how to prevent other diseases, with a focus on handwashing, covering mouths when they cough or sneeze, and cleaning and bandaging cuts.
As they get older, the lessons become more direct about transmission of the virus, which is not spread by casual contact, along with its prevention.
"We also have to recognize that students are exposed to lots of information on the Internet, on cable television and ... the message of personal responsibility and the value of abstaining from alcohol or sexual activity and other drugs," said Betty Rothbart, director of health education and family living at the Department of Education. "These are messages that they may not be hearing very much in other areas of their lives."
At Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School, assistant principal John Roberts, who is responsible for health and physical education, said he believes his 3,700 students are exposed to a comprehensive curriculum that covers AIDS and a number of health topics - more than the minimum six lessons in high school the department stipulates.
The school also combines lectures with hands-on lessons. Roberts said. To mark World AIDS Day, for example, students take part in a week of activities - including a commemorative quilt and daylong sessions with guest speakers.
While abstinence is stressed as part of the high school curriculum, most high schools in the city also make condoms available to those who request them, unless a student's parent objects.
While it is difficult to gauge how effective the condom distribution has been, Roberts said a recent survey found 100 to 150 had been requested over one month at Murrow alone.
The department's condom availability policy was created by a chancellor regulation in 1991. Training is offered to schools taking part in the program. The department orders the condoms and provides them to schools upon request.
Still, a city health department study three years ago found teens weren't necessarily listening. One in four students who said they were sexually active reported they hadn't used a condom the last time they had sex. And nearly 20 percent of the sexually active teens said they had had at least four partners.
Results like those are one of the reasons the city's Department of Education has ramped up its AIDS curriculum in public schools in the past year. Besides providing updated information on treatment, it provides updated lessons on how to prevent it and the real-life dangers AIDS poses to everyone.
"The changing face of AIDS is becoming younger and younger," said Kacie Winsor of the New York AIDS Coalition, who sat on the panel that drafted a revised schools curriculum released last year.
The Department of Education launched its comprehensive push to rewrite the curriculum after Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told a state Assembly hearing that he agreed the AIDS curriculum implemented in 1987 was medically and socially dated.
One school official said that before the curriculum was updated, students had been taught things that were just plain wrong. For example, they were told that having AIDS was tantamount to a "death sentence." Under the updated curriculum, students learn how those with HIV and AIDS can live for many years with the disease and that there are many treatments. At the same time, they are told there still is no cure.
"It's not everything we wanted, but it's definitely a step in the right direction and an improvement from the old curriculum," said Winsor.
Under state guidelines, public schools must provide age-appropriate lessons, though districts have freedom to design the specific curriculum.
In the city, as in many districts around the state, that means that younger students, in kindergarten through third grade, are exposed to general instruction on how to prevent other diseases, with a focus on handwashing, covering mouths when they cough or sneeze, and cleaning and bandaging cuts.
As they get older, the lessons become more direct about transmission of the virus, which is not spread by casual contact, along with its prevention.
"We also have to recognize that students are exposed to lots of information on the Internet, on cable television and ... the message of personal responsibility and the value of abstaining from alcohol or sexual activity and other drugs," said Betty Rothbart, director of health education and family living at the Department of Education. "These are messages that they may not be hearing very much in other areas of their lives."
At Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School, assistant principal John Roberts, who is responsible for health and physical education, said he believes his 3,700 students are exposed to a comprehensive curriculum that covers AIDS and a number of health topics - more than the minimum six lessons in high school the department stipulates.
The school also combines lectures with hands-on lessons. Roberts said. To mark World AIDS Day, for example, students take part in a week of activities - including a commemorative quilt and daylong sessions with guest speakers.
While abstinence is stressed as part of the high school curriculum, most high schools in the city also make condoms available to those who request them, unless a student's parent objects.
While it is difficult to gauge how effective the condom distribution has been, Roberts said a recent survey found 100 to 150 had been requested over one month at Murrow alone.
The department's condom availability policy was created by a chancellor regulation in 1991. Training is offered to schools taking part in the program. The department orders the condoms and provides them to schools upon request.