As dozens of his peers looked on and jeered him, high school
freshman Edgar Gonzalez awkwardly grasped a banana while attempting
to slip the blue latex condom over it.
Third-year UCLA biology student Ashley Fonseca stepped in to
complete the condom demonstration, but not before placing her
entire forearm inside the condom to illustrate that no man is
“too big.” The students laughed.
This was no ordinary class for freshman health students at
Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles.
“It kind of makes you think twice,” said Gonzalez of
the presentation, adding that he had not realized STDs could be
spread through pre-ejaculate.
The day’s presentations were sponsored by the UCLA
Black/Latino AIDS Project, a program that aims to educate high
school students in predominantly black and Latino communities about
HIV/AIDS and safe sex.
The project chooses to target these communities because,
according to the Centers for Disease Control, the disease
disproportionately affects black and Latino populations
nationwide.
Wednesday’s presentations at Roosevelt High School was
just one of over a dozen site visits the program does at inner-city
high schools across Los Angeles each year.
The neighborhood around Roosevelt is a world away from UCLA and
Westwood: Shop windows are barred, Metro buses are more numerous
than cars, and Spanish-language billboards loom over the narrow
streets.
Fonseca, who is one of the co-directors of the project, was
standing in the main quad of the campus before the presentation
when she noticed a pregnant student emerging from the
cafeteria.
“We’re actually incorporating birth control into our
presentations,” she said, “El Monte High School has one
of the highest pregnancy rates in the nation.”
The current presentation is designed for high school freshmen
taking a Los Angeles Unified School District-mandated health class,
and includes information about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted
diseases and safe-sex practices, as well as a short segment on the
importance of attending college.
While the group does hand out packets outlining local resources,
the school district does not allow the presenters to distribute
condoms on campus, Fonesca said.
Third-year physiological sciences student Jolly Mannanal
attended her first site visit with the project Wednesday, though
she has been involved with another project, Be Carded, which
reaches out to Latino high school students to encourage them to
become organ donors.
“For Be Carded, we have to get parent permission to
present in high schools,” she said of the relative
controversy surrounding that program.
In contrast, the AIDS project does not need any permission to
speak in high school health courses.
The project recently completed a training session with students
from Crossroads High School, a private institution in Santa Monica,
with the aim of enabling them to visit other high schools and
educate their peers about HIV/AIDS, a program Fonesca is optimistic
about.
“I think the good thing about training high school
students is that it’s easier for them to speak to their
peers,” Fonseca said, though she cited some apprehension
because Crossroads students are mostly white and from affluent
backgrounds.
“They’re really trying to break the barrier and see
the other side of the spectrum,” she added.
With over 5,000 students on an aging campus with a year-round
schedule, Roosevelt High School lies at the other end of such a
spectrum, making it much like many other schools in the district:
It is straining to work within its resources.
“Where I went to high school all the chairs in the
classroom matched. And then you go here and you’re lucky if
you have enough chairs and books for everyone,” Mannanal
said.
Fonseca also noted a discrepancy between schools in terms of
awareness about HIV/AIDS.
“At Crossroads, we asked them questions and they knew a
lot of information,” said Fonseca, adding that students she
works with in inner-city high schools know less and are more likely
to believe the myths.
Roosevelt freshman Chanel Elizalde said that, while she knew
what AIDS was, she hadn’t known what the symptoms and exact
causes were before the presentation.
“I don’t know anyone who has an STD, but I think
everyone should be aware of it,” she said.