AREA OFFICIALS GET AIDS EDUCATION.

Byline: Kermit Pattison Daily News Staff Writer

Pacing back and forth with a dramatic flair honed in courtroom trials, David Schulman laid out the facts about a hidden killer.

Peering over his audience of executives in suits, the attorney picked apart the legal fundamentals of a taboo subject - HIV and AIDS in the workplace.

"All you have to remember is you treat people with HIV just like any other people with a disability," he said. "It's actually wonderfully simple."

In what organizers hope will become an example for employers across the region, mandatory AIDS and HIV training began Wednesday for top managers in Ventura County government.

Led by county health officials and consultants from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, the workshops will teach the county's 600 employees in supervisory jobs how to grapple with a disease charged with prejudice, shame and social stigma.

"These are issues they are going to face and probably have already faced," said Jerry Gates, director of the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center at the USC school of medicine. "If the employee had cancer or something else other than HIV, it would probably be a lot easier to deal with."

The training began as about 60 top managers from county and local cities' staffs and from school districts gathered Wednesday morning in the Ventura County Government Center to hear a keynote address from Schulman, who supervises the AIDS/HIV discrimination unit of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

Scanning the rows of executives, Schulman asked how many fully understood the origin of the virus which causes AIDS or how it gets transmitted. Only a handful raised their hands.

Gesturing broadly and scribbling notes on a large easel, he drew on his courtroom experience and moved through the legal fundamentals of workplace rights of the disabled.

As long as the disability does not undermine ability to do the job or threaten others, he said, employees should have the opportunity to work and a right to privacy.

"My message is: We really know what to do," Schulman said. "The law has nicely evolved in these areas."

Because the virus is transmitted through blood, he said employers must remember that casual workplace contact poses no risk.

Closing his presentation, Schulman urged the managers to let the message percolate down through their employees.

"If there's one thing we know about AIDS in a corporate culture, it's that midlevel and front-line people take their signals from the top," he said. "Since AIDS is so particularly provocative, the way you signal to your staff how it should be approached will be taken seriously."

Doug Green, executive director of the Ventura group AIDS Care, called the workshops an important step in breaking down prejudice.

"We can hope within the end of the century, we can end HIV illiteracy in this county," Green said after the workshop. "Fear of HIV is still very prevalent."

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the $9,000 training campaign last year on the recommendation of a committee on HIV and AIDS. Each of county government's managers will get three hours of training before May.

"It's something they can manage," said Gates. "With the skills they've learned in the workshop, they'll be able to make their lives a lot easier."

Dr. Gary Feldman, the Ventura County public health officer, said he hopes the county's progressive stance will prod other government agencies and private corporations to take similar steps.

"We do expect to be evangelists," he said. "And we expect to succeed."