American Notes Health

When the program was first proposed last December, it set off a storm of protest from parents and religious leaders, who feared it would encourage sexual promiscuity. But New York City schools chancellor Joseph Fernandez insisted the urgency of preventing AIDS outweighed all other considerations. That argument prevailed, and last week two city high schools began distributing condoms, without parental consent, to any student who requested them.

Alerted again to the risks of heterosexually transmitted AIDS by Magic Johnson's revelations, students lined the hallways to get the handouts. By the end of next year condoms will be available to 260,000 students at 120 schools. Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles already have smaller, clinic-based programs that make prophylactics available to high school students; San Francisco and Philadelphia are planning similar schemes.