WASHINGTON, D.C. – Magic Johnson recently spoke to almost 1,000 students at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C. Magic challenged the students to responsibility – in their studies and in their relationships.

He urged them to put as much energy into their academic work as into sports, and to save sex until after marriage.

Johnson now brings a strong message to students and young people across the country on sexual responsibility. He told the assembled students at Cardozo High that although some students would not take his advice, he urged them: “You shouldn’t have it [sex] until you’re married.”

One female student created a stir in the audience when she questioned Johnson why he wasn’t “responsible” in his many sexual encounters with women during his basketball career.

“That was my mistake,” Johnson responded. “I was not responsible. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do.

“It was wrong first of all for me to do the thing I was doing. I can’t correct that. All I can do is try and save your lives.”

The incidence of AIDS is increasing among heterosexuals. The most recent figures indicate it took 8 years to reach the first 100,000 cases of AIDS in the United States but only a little more than two years to add the next 100,000 cases.