Lawsuit: Hershey school rejects HIV-positive boy

bostonherald.com ^ | 12/03/2011 | Associated Press

[massmike]

A private boarding school connected with the Hershey chocolate company says it was trying to protect other students when it denied admission to a Philadelphia-area teenager because he is HIV-positive.

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on behalf of the unidentified boy in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, claiming the Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged students violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

School officials acknowledged that the 13-year-old boy was denied admission because of his medical condition. They said they believed it was necessary to protect the health and safety of the 1,850 others enrolled in the residential institution, which serves children in pre-kindergarten to 12th grade and where students live in homes with 10 to 12 others.

Such restrictions are not limited to HIV, school spokeswoman Connie McNamara said Thursday.

[Sooth2222]

"Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2008 to reaffirm that HIV is a qualified disability entitled to accommodation by public and private schools, a lawyer at the New York City-based Center for HIV Law and Policy said."

That would be the Nancy Pelosi Congress.

HIV is a virus and AIDS is an infectious disease, not a disability, no matter what Congress might think. Congress can pass laws saying that "up" is "down" and "hot" is "cold" but that doesn't make it so.

[momtothree]

It’s a private school. Private schools can make their own decisions about what students to select. IMHO.

[Melas]

I would have thought that by now everyone was educated enough about HIV to realize that this boy posed no threat. I could see this kind of paranoia in the 1980’s but it makes absolutely no sense in the 21st century.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Since they are giving the eduation away for free... it’s actually more like a scholorship... and all scholorships discriminate.

Asian scholorships
Black scholorships
White KKK members scholorships
Red heads scholorships
you name it, there’s a scholorships for it, and they all discrimitate and have every right to do so.

[cricket]

Some OTHER reason, perhaps - not being stated?

[cricket]

Some OTHER reason, perhaps - not being stated?

[StolarStorm]

What???!!?? There is indeed a threat. Incidental contact is not an issue, as it would be in most situations, but in a boarding school? Cuts and possible sexual contact could occur (yeah, it's a boarding school... it happens).

No one here is as dumb as you seem to think, believing that one can get HIV from toilet seats or hugging or other nonsense. But we also aren't dumb enough to think that there is no threat. Teenagers get in fights, blood spills, bloody knuckles come into contact with bloody noses. Sex does occur as well.

Since the ADA does prevent discrimination for HIV, they will lose the case even though it will end up destroying the place. Parents will rightly and intelligently pull their children out of it. The boarding school is in a NO WIN situation on this.

[tacticalogic]

I would have thought that by now everyone was educated enough about HIV to realize that this boy posed no threat.

I was under the impression that someone who is HIV positive is essentially a walking skin-bag of slow-acting poison, with no known antidote.

[wintertime]

I would have thought that by now everyone was educated enough about HIV to realize that this boy posed no threat.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

He is immune compromised. He is susceptible to many infectious diseases that other healthy people can and do get.TB is one of the most dangerous.

Also...He will be living communally. There is at least one case of a child contracting HIV by using the toothbrush of his HIV sibling.

[Melas]

Parents will rightly and intelligently pull their children out of it.

I have no words with which to express my level of disagreement. We're so far apart in our thinking here that it's not even worth discussing.

[Lady Lucky]

We're so far apart in our thinking here that it's not even worth discussing.

Well, that was helpful. Not.

[Alberta's Child]

I could easily see strong arguments on both sides of this issue, but let's be brutally honest here. The "AIDS industry" is reaping what they sowed themselves in cases like this. When you go out and spend decades spreading widespread alarm over a disease and clamoring for billions of dollars in government funding for prevention and research related to that deadly disease, you really can't blame people for taking measures to reduce their exposure to it.

It's also worth noting that this isn't an exclusive prep school where wealthy people send their children. It's a private boarding school for troubled families, which means it's as much a charity as it is an education establishment.

[StolarStorm]

OK, you would risk your child getting into a bloody fist fight and risk getting a disease as horrific as HIV? Yes, no words can express my disagreement with your view either. There are other options for this kid, a full time boarding school is not a good one.

This is not a slam against the poor child that is afflicted, it is recognition that as parents it is our responsibility to remove unnecessary risk from harming our children. We make their wear seatbelts too, even though the risk of an accident isn't that great.

If you don't realize that there is indeed a valid risk of exposure then you have blinders on (cause my something personal no doubt).

[Melas]

My family has associated with a nurse who’s had HIV for 15 years now, and we’ve suffered no ill effects. Nor have her family members who live with her.

For one thing, with treatment, HIV no longer blossoms into AIDS with the same frequency it once did. There are many people who have been HIV positive for years now and still have functioning immune systems. It’s not the death sentence or the danger that it once was.

Being HIV positive in no way means that your immune system is compromised. It only means that you’re carrying a virus that in the 21st century, may compromise your immune system.

Even it does develop into AIDS. Those with AIDS do not present a greater risk to those around them unless body fluids are being exchanged. Those around them, present a risk to them.

[Melas]

I’m certain that in your eyes I’m a horrible parent, but my youngest children, now young adults themselves, spent many a night, weekend, taken trips etc with a woman who happens to be HIV positive. I completely lack your sense of paranoia concerning the disease.

[StolarStorm]

Uhh... teenagers expel a lot of body fluids. Especially the boys. Fights, bloody noses, other things... its is a full time boarding school not incidental contact with someone with HIV.

[StolarStorm]

Big difference. She's not a teenage boy. The odds of her getting into a fist fight with your children was practically nil. Children also don't have the same sense of hygiene and safety that an adult would have.

It is insane to put a TEENAGE BOY, who is infected with anything deadly, in a dorm room with 10 other kids.

[tacticalogic]

I understand that there are ways to mitigate the risk, but it is still there and not quite honest to say there there is none.

Unless you are one of the very few people who have been found to be immune, currently the best case scenario is a lifetime of expensive drug treatments to keep it under control if you would happen to become infected.

[linn37]

“In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others,” the school said in a statement Wednesday.

Such restrictions are not limited to HIV, school spokeswoman Connie McNamara said Thursday.

I agree. Let them make the decision.