Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 20, 1993                   TAG: 9306200016
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO MAKE CONDOMS AVAILABLE

Under a plan approved by the board, the city's 3,000 students in ninth through 12th grades will be able to get condoms from school nurses beginning this fall.

The city's attempt to confront AIDS on school grounds comes less than a year after District of Columbia education officials began to make condoms available in all D.C. public high schools and several ju- To turn your back and pretend that sexually transmitted diseases don't exist is just unrealistic today and would be irresponsible. Mayor Patricia Ticer Supporter of board decision nior highs.

Condom distribution remains highly controversial and is not being considered by any other school system in the Washington area, according to school officials in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Some local school systems have not tolerated independent student efforts to promote condom use. In April, a 16-year-old Fairfax County student handed out about 50 condoms outside Oakton High School. She was threatened with suspension by school officials who said she had violated rules by distributing information on school grounds without a principal's permission.

Last fall, the principal of Arlington County's Wakefield High School ordered a student to remove the condom inside a clear plastic pocket on a T-shirt bearing a protected-sex message.

But during the last year, programs for making condoms available at school have started to proliferate across the country. Condom projects have been approved in 70 U.S. school systems, according to the Center for Population Options, a nonprofit group that tracks such programs nationally.

Condoms are widely regarded by AIDS researchers and public health officials as one of the most effective means to prevent the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The virus is spread primarily through sexual contact and the sharing of needles among intravenous drug users.

Some educators and parents view the fatal AIDS epidemic as a threat serious enough to warrant extraordinary measures.

"I think the School Board realized this is a health emergency," said Ann Ahearn, who led a yearlong lobbying campaign by the Alexandria PTA Council in support of the condom program.

That campaign, combined with prodding from the Alexandria Health Department, was pivotal in the School Board's unanimous decision Thursday night, board members said.

"You have to go where the kids are," said Mayor Patricia Ticer. "To turn your back and pretend that sexually transmitted diseases don't exist is just unrealistic today and would be irresponsible."

Alexandria and Arlington residents have Virginia's highest rates of infection with the AIDS virus, according to state health figures.