A Lifelong Crusade for AIDS Education

HIV/AIDS awareness is everyone's responsibility, says Adam Tenner, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS. (By J. Carrier For The Washington Post)

Lofton:[Laughs.]

When you were starting out as a peer educator, what was the biggest issue?

Tenner: I started because one of the teachers at my college passed away from AIDS. It was kind of a big deal, my teacher's death, and there was a little bit of awareness about AIDS. I mean, our college was right outside New York, where so many people were getting sick and dying. But there wasn't a whole lot of awareness. All we knew was that it wasn't called GRID anymore.

Lofton: What's GRID?

Tenner: GRID stood for gay-related immune deficiency. Or something like that.

Lofton: Huh?

Tenner: This was a long time ago. The really early days. We were young college students. People were going back and forth into the city. And I don't think people were really using protection. I don't think people thought about the risk.

As a peer educator and a high school student, what's the biggest challenge for you?

Lofton: Honestly, people don't want to talk about it. And then you have school officials who are afraid to talk about it, too. Before I became a peer educator two years ago, I actually thought that you couldn't get HIV or any other STDs through oral sex. I actually thought that.

The thing is, there are a lot of students who are ignorant of the disease. Some act like they don't care at all. And some people think you can get HIV by touching somebody.

Where is the city with regard to HIV education in D.C. public schools?

Tenner: Not very far. I mean, the schools are still in the process of developing their standards for health education, which includes HIV education. That will be finished and go before the school board in March. So there's still no HIV/AIDS core curriculum going on. There was supposed to be one this year, at least for high schoolers. That didn't happen.