AIDS Education

Re “Sex Education Class Kicked Out of School,” April 18.

Last week I found out that yet another of my friends and colleagues is HIV-positive, one of the most generous, caring people I know. I don’t know what will ever vanquish this horrible disease, but it sure as hell won’t be ignorance.

It is pathetic that a high school district president thinks that an honest, intelligent question doesn’t deserve an equally honest and intelligent answer. It is impossible to educate people about a disease, or any other danger, without addressing every aspect of how it is, or is not, transmitted. In the case of AIDS, that includes oral sex.

Furthermore, we have been preaching abstinence for literally thousands of years. Yet we saw people die of syphilis for centuries before discovering a cure, and now decades of death from AIDS. Obviously, we need a more realistic approach. Also, if [Antelope Valley Union High School District President Sue] Stokka is so naive as to believe that married couples are safe, she must be ignoring the statistics about infidelity.

Knowledge is power. If Stokka has a problem with that, she should find another profession.

NATALIE ANDERSON

Sherman Oaks

* Sue Stokka in Antelope Valley sounds like one hysterical, hide-your-head-in-the-sand prude to me. . . . She fits Ambrose Bierce’s definition of a Puritan: a person who suspects that someone somewhere may be having fun.

I will also dispute her statement that sex between minors is illegal in California. What precisely is this law she is referring to? For her further information, I and my wife are happily teaching our children about their sexuality and that premarital sex is perfectly fine so long as they use condoms and birth control.

SAM FRANK

North Hollywood

* I heard that the best way to teach about sex is to answer questions as they come up. I also heard that school is where we educate, where we freely exchange ideas and information.

So a kid asks a question in school about oral sex, the teacher answers, and the class is closed. What’s the problem? Family values? Rule No. 1: Keep family members alive!

JEAN K. GLASSER

Van Nuys

* The remarks made by Sue Stokka display appalling ignorance concerning effective AIDS prevention education. Her idea that frank discussion of sex is “not appropriate” in an AIDS prevention education program makes about as much sense as a notion that a driver’s education course should make no reference to operating an automobile. How many kids have to die from a preventable disease because of the sexual hang-ups of administrators like Stokka?

MICHAEL A. JAMES

Los Angeles