Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 23, 1985.
Hobart student barred because of AIDS
HOBART (AP) ー A Hobart Schools student diagnosed as having AIDS has been barred from attending class and is completing assignments at home, Superintendent Richard Abel said Friday.
Abel would not name the male high school student with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but said the student has been ill and out of school since Oct. 30.
The student is a hemophiliac, as is 13-year-old Ryan White of Kokomo, who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. Ryan was barred from attending classes in the Western Hills schools system and has been taking instruction at home via a telephone hookup.
The Hobart school board adopted a policy Thursday night which also barrs students with AIDS from attending school.
Under the policy, Abel said, any student with AIDS “will be offered a continuation of their education only through a homebound teaching program.”
Abel said he believes the policy to be one of the first in the country.
“Now that the policy is official and the administration is charged with the responsibility of carrying it out, our next move will be to solicit volunteers from the teaching staff to go to the home and do what I will call the normal home-bound teaching assignment,” said Abel.
Abel, however, said he did not anticipate any teachers volunteering because of all the unknowns about AIDS. If there are no volunteers, he will go to the next step, he said.
Since the policy was adopted only Thursday, he has not yet asked for volunteers, said Abel, and the student has been completing assignments at home since he was diagnosed as having AIDS on Oct. 30.
“The student is not being denied an education,” said Abel. “It is continuing, but in a different form.”
Abel said the student’s parents have been cooperative and school staff members also have been supportive.
He also said he has received no negative reaction from other parents ー “just concern. There has been no panic, none at all.”
Ryan White was discharged from Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis two weeks ago after being hospitalized more than six weeks with a respiratory problem.
Ryan’s mother, Jeanne White, is fighting the decision by school officials to keep her son out of class.
The Indiana Department of Education is expected to announce a decision Wednesday on whether Ryan, a seventh-grader, will be allowed to return to his school.
