Subject: Education Secretary's Handbook On AIDS Stresses Moral Teaching
Date: Published: 10/7/87 74 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Education Secretary Issues Handbook
    On AIDS That Stresses Moral Teaching
    ---
    By Joe Davidson
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    WASHINGTON -- Education Secretary William Bennett released
 an AIDS handbook for educators and parents that encourages
 teaching about the disease in a strong moral context.
    "Teach restraint as a virtue," says the handbook.  It urges
 parents and teachers to tell young people that "the safest and 
 smartest way to prevent infection with the deadly AIDS
 virus is to avoid premarital sex and illegal drugs."
    The handbook, written by Mr. Bennett, reflects his
 displeasure with other government publications that don't
 emphasize values to his satisfaction.  He is critical of
 reports that point out the protection condoms provide against
 acquired immune deficiency syndrome, without encouraging
 sexual abstinence.
    "Most cases of AIDS result from behavior that can be
 avoided," Mr. Bennett said yesterday during a news
 conference.  "We cannot shy away from associating moral values
 with behavior.  The behavior of our nation's teen-agers is the
 product of the values they hold, not just the facts they have
 learned."
    While the handbook focuses on teaching students about the
 disease, it also provides guidance for schools with students
 who have [bleep]. Most infected students should remain in the
 regular classroom, according to the booklet.  A restricted
 setting is suggested for infected students likely to bite
 others, or those with involuntary body secretions or oozing
 lesions.
    "For most infected school-aged children, the benefits of
 an unrestricted setting would outweigh the risks of their
 acquiring potentially harmful infections in the setting and
 the apparent nonexistent risk of transmission" of the AIDS
 virus, Mr. Bennett wrote in the booklet.
    Rep. Ted Weiss (D., N. Y.)  , chairman of the House Human
 Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee,
 criticized the handbook as "terribly misguided" for focusing
 almost exclusively on the "moral message" of abstinence even
 though it indicated that 75% of teen-age boys and almost 67%
 of teen-age girls are sexually active.
    He acknowledged that abstinence is "the only absolutely
 safe way" to avoid the disease, but added that "more clear
 scientific information" about the role of condoms in
 preventing the transmission of AIDS and the role of
 unsanitary needles in spreading the disease would have
 provided a more balanced message.
    Mr. Bennett's booklet was controversial even before it was
 released.  Officials at the Department of Health and Human
 Services are upset because the entire handbook wasn't cleared
 by the federal coordinating committee on AIDS. 
    But during his news conference, Mr. Bennett said "the
 areas of agreement are very substantial" between him and the
 human services department on the AIDS issue.  Mr. Bennett said
 Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen told him a
 section dealing with condoms in Surgeon General C. Everett
 Koop's 1986 report on AIDS may be revised to place a greater
 emphasis on the possibility of condom failure.
    However, a human services agency spokesman said there are
 no immediate plans to revise Dr. Koop's report, although
 revisions may be considered after the results of a federally
 financed study are available.

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