el, 1992). This was in answer to a claim that New York law prohibited the schools from offering health services -- but the principal is important everywhere.
Schools in Los Angeles also have the right to distribute the condoms because the majority of the citizens favor this approach to AIDS prevention. Numerous studies have shown that in all but a few small communities the great majority of American adults favor the distribution of condoms in high schools (Frankel, 1995). In the New York case, even when it was decided for political reasons that it was best to offer parents an option to opt out of the program and prevent their children from receiving condoms only 2% of parents mailed in the forms that would forbid their children to receive the condoms (Guttmacher et al., 1995).
Opponents of condom distribution argue that it sanctions or encourages sexual activity. But studies have actually shown that condom distribution has no impact on the level of sexual activity among teens (Guttmacher et al., 1995; Shelton, 1995). Opponents also claim that the distribution of condoms gives teenagers the misleading idea that prophylactics provide guaranteed protection against the virus (Quinn, 1991). But any responsible program, in emphasizing the importance of abstinence, would not fail to mention that abstinence is the only sure means of avoiding infection. The importance of condoms in preven
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