The Aids Issue Hits the Schools

By Ellie McGrath.

Honor Student Ryan White, 13, began seventh grade last week. But he did not get on a yellow bus to travel the five miles to the Western Middle School near Kokomo, Ind. For Ryan, classroom is his bedroom, where he tries to hear teachers and speak to fellow pupils via a telephone hookup. Ryan is a hemophiliac who contracted acquired immunodeficiency syndrome last winter through a blood transfusion. Although Indiana state health officials say that students with AIDS can attend school as long as their condition does not threaten others, District Superintendent of Schools J.O. Smith decided to bar Ryan from classrooms, calling AIDS "the most scary of all communicable diseases." Ryan's parents have sued school officials, claiming discrimination.

In school districts throughout the country, children with AIDS are at the center of growing concern, conflict and confusion. Despite the intensity of , the emotions involved, only 183 people under the age of 18 in 23 states have been diagnosed as AIDS victims. Indiana, Florida, Connecticut, Texas and Los Angeles have issued guidelines allowing children with AIDS to attend school, but few if any are actually in classrooms. In Los Angeles the policy has yet to be enforced. Says Associate Superintendent Jerry Halverson: "There has been an agreement and understanding that children with AIDS would not be enrolled in school, predicated almost entirely on the welfare of the patient." In New York City, a special panel made up of health experts, an educator and a parent will decide before school starts whether each of seven children who have AIDS should be placed in classrooms.

The widespread alarm about AIDS in schools, especially among parents who fear that their children could be infected by a classmate, is understandable, but it is not supported by medical evidence. Last week the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta issued a report aimed at providing authoritative guidance to schools and parents. The CDC found that "based on current evidence, casual person-to-person contact as would occur among schoolchildren appears to pose no risk . . . (Most of) these children should be allowed to attend school and after-school day-care . . . in an unrestricted setting." Indeed, there are no known instances of a child with AIDS infecting his parents or siblings. The report did caution that preschool-age children and those who lack bodily function control or who have open sores should be treated with care in order to "minimize exposure of other children to blood or body fluids."

Like any other children, AIDS victims have a right to a free public education, which is the schools' duty to provide. But, says New York University Law School Professor Martin Guggenheim, that duty can be discharged if necessary "through home instruction." Carol Sobel, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, maintains, "Society has an obligation to make the lives of these children as normal as possible. Telephone hookups and tutors deny children the full benefits of a public education."

Ultimately, cases like Ryan White's may become even more painful as they turn into politicized local issues. Says Stanford Law School Professor Robert Mnookin: "I'm concerned that school boards are acting out of fear and prejudice rather than rational concerns for the welfare of children."

With reporting by Jon D. Hull/San Francisco and Don Winbush/Chicago