Union Apologizes for ‘Offensive’ AIDS Cartoon

The San Diego Union apologized Wednesday for publishing an editorial cartoon about AIDS on its editorial pages Tuesday that some readers and the San Diego Teachers Assn. found offensive.

The Union issued a clarification on the same page under the headline “Offensive cartoon.” The newspaper said that the cartoon “was widely criticized as being in bad taste and offensive to teachers.

“That criticism was on target. The cartoon should not have appeared. The Union regrets that the cartoon was used and apologizes to its readers,” the statement said.

The 1985 cartoon, drawn by Bruce Beattie of Daytona, Fla., and distributed by the Copley News Service, showed a student telling another: “It wouldn’t be so bad having AIDS in school . . . at least you wouldn’t have to worry about being molested by any of the teachers.” It appeared above an article on educating children about AIDS that was written by syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.

The Union said that Beattie drew the cartoon in September, 1985, during a controversy over admitting a child with AIDS to school. At the same time, there was widespread fear among parents because of alleged molestations of children at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, the newspaper explained.

The SDTA demanded an apology Tuesday, calling the cartoon “an unwarranted cheap shot” at city and county teachers. Letter-writers also objected, and the Union promised Wednesday to publish some of the letters.

“We saw that the cartoon was in poor taste,” Ed Fike, editor of the Union’s editorial page, said Wednesday. “It turned out to be a mistake. We wanted to acknowledge that, which we do.”

SDTA President Don Crawford, who called for the apology, said that “I would have appreciated a little more direction in the apology to teachers, because they bore the brunt of the insensitivity in the cartoon.”