Laguna Students Promote AIDS Awareness Program : Education: Schools, medical community and local government form partnership to help protect youngsters from the deadly virus.

LAGUNA BEACH —  The Laguna Beach Unified School District and the Community Clinic have joined forces in what leaders say is a community-wide push to increase AIDS awareness among middle school and high school students.

“We’re not aware of anything else that’s happening in the state and we suspect we’re the first in the country to do this kind of thing,” said clinic director Gary Erb. “We are very conscious as we work through this program that what we are producing is a model that could be adapted and used by other communities.”

The program, which starts the first week of October, is an unusual partnership involving schools, the medical community and local government to help protect students from the deadly AIDS virus. Plans call for intensifying AIDS education in the schools, informing students about family planning and providing AIDS education counseling at the clinic.

School district officials said the effort is being “very well received” by parents, some of whom were involved in developing the program.

“We have to do something more globally than we have in the past,” said Laguna Unified Supt. Paul M. Possemato. If the issue of sexually active young people is not addressed now, he said, “the possibility of our not responding to that need could cause us greater health costs several years down the road.”

In May, the Laguna Beach High School newspaper conducted a survey of 461 students. About 59% of the seniors, 34% of the juniors, 29% of the sophomores and 15% of the freshmen reported that they were sexually active.

In addition, students polled by the school’s AIDS Committee said they don’t feel they know enough about AIDS and would be willing to attend short courses on the subject.

Laguna Beach has the highest per capita incidence of AIDS in the county and one of the highest in the nation.

As part of the new program, the clinic will provide a bilingual certified AIDS instructor to educate high school and middle school students.

“We’re ready to roll,” Erb said. “What we’re trying to do is increase the awareness of the school-age population of the services that are available here. Those services include family planning, HIV counseling and testing.”

Teens can obtain condoms through the clinic only if they take part in either the medical center’s family planning or HIV counseling programs, Erb said.

“Nobody can come in and just ask for condoms and get them,” he said.

During counseling sessions, teens will learn that “there’s a whole passel of behaviors that directly feed in to an exposure to AIDS,” he said. “Kids drink too much and sexual activity may happen. We’re really trying to take a wider look at that picture.”

The plan to expand the district’s AIDS education and prevention program began in January when some students expressed concerns about needing more information about the disease, said Nancy Hubbell, director of special services for the district.

The final “Health Education and Services: A Community-Wide Initiative,” approved earlier this month by the school district Board of Trustees, is unique because it enlists the help of the city, the medical center and AIDS Service groups in reaching out to educate local teens.

“Our district has had an HIV/AIDS curriculum since 1988,” Hubbell said. “What we’re looking at (now) is the need to expand that program into a community-wide effort so that we’re truly protecting the youth of this community from this disease.”

One advantage of forming a partnership, Erb said, is that some foundations favor funding joint projects over individual efforts.

“They like to see a community consortium instead of one group carrying the ball,” Erb said, adding that he will be writing proposals in an attempt to get grants to support the AIDS education program as it expands.

In addition, the school district will solicit financial support from the city. “We’re hoping the City Council will endorse the program as a community-wide effort and provide any resources that may be necessary that are beyond the present program budget allocation,” Possemato said.

The Laguna Beach HIV Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from several AIDS service groups, has worked with the school district on the new project since January, Hubbell said.

While no date is set yet, the district is planning an “HIV Awareness Kick-Off Day” at Laguna Beach High School, which will involve a full day of AIDS education for parents and teens at Laguna Beach High School.