The AIDS Quilt Comes to Sutro Elementary

The AIDS Quilt arrived at Sutro last week, and the kids had a moment or two to appreciate the work, effort, and love that went into making each square. The part of the quilt that came to our school took up one full wall in Ms. Lau's Room 9 classroom, and gave the kids a small example of the enormous completed quilt that exists.

The students then wrote essays on what kind of impression the quilt made on them. Many made a statement about how AIDS should not scare people away from being friends with the sick. Others relayed their honest fear of contracting a disease such as HIV or AIDS, no matter how small the chances are. It was a truly illuminating experience...one that showed just how much the kids have grown since first arriving at Sutro years ago in Kindergarten. What an amazing class of students.

The AIDS Quilt
by Carmen Lin

On December 6, 2007, my class went to see the AIDS Quilt in Room 9. It was a very big quilt that had pictures of people who died from AIDS. On the quilt were objects that those people used or liked, their portraits, the dates of when they were born or died, etc.

I feel sad for those people because they were loved by their family members and they miss them a lot. Those people died from AIDS, a disease. AIDS kill your white blood cells and you get sick all the time. It's a tragedy that they died from AIDS.

A lot of people are scared of AIDS because they think you can catch it very easily. The only way to get AIDS is blood-to-blood contact. Since so may people fear AIDS, they stay away from people with AIDS, which will make that person very lonely.

If I was friends with someone who has AIDS, I would still be their friend even if other people didn't want to be that person's friend. I'd just have to be careful when that person was bleeding so that I wouldn't catch AIDS, too.