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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409140087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                 LENGTH: Medium

2ND-GRADERS TO BE TAUGHT ABOUT AIDS

Public school second- and third-graders will learn from a 10-minute video about how AIDS is spread by ``blood mixing,'' but the video avoids any mention of sex.

Until this year, city schools did not broach the topic of AIDS until sixth grade. Few school districts in the state try to teach about the deadly disease before the fifth grade.

But a panel of nearly 40 parents, teachers and community members that reviews family life education in Newport News decided during the last school year to change that. The School Board agreed.

``It's not introduced in terms of sex,'' said Mary Oder, a School Board member who serves on the family life panel and helped devise the change. ``I think the strength of the program is that we are talking about germs, and we build on that.''

In the germ awareness video, youngsters will be told that AIDS is a disease carried in the blood. They will be told not to touch blood or other body fluids. But they will also learn not to worry that AIDS is ``something they can pick up in school,'' said Carolyn Chittenden, the school system's supervisor of health and physical education.

The video explains that AIDS can't be spread by a casual touch or sharing toys but can be spread by playing things like ``blood brother-blood sister.''

Students in the fifth grade will be told that AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease. By ninth grade, they will learn about the cause, prevention and treatment of the disease.

Students in 11th and 12th grades will get detailed information on the disease, including lessons on how it destroys the immune system and how latex condoms can reduce the risk of contracting it during sex.

But, as with the school system's entire sex-education program, ``the stress is always on abstinence'' as the best way to avoid disease or unplanned pregnancies, Chittenden said.

A pamphlet describing the changes to the family life curriculum was sent home with students when schools opened last week. Parents have the option of removing their children from the classes, but in past years less than 1 percent of parents have done so, Chittenden said.

by CNB