HIV positive boy sues Hershey school for non-admission

I am so angry right now. This kind of discrimination is unacceptable. A 13-year-old boy was denied admission to a school funded by the Hershey Chocolate Company because he is HIV positive. He is now suing the school.

Here are HIV facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: HIV is most commonly transmitted through unprotected sex or sharing needles with an infected person. HIV is not transmitted by day-to-day casual contact, such as through shaking hands or a casual kiss. It is not possible to become infected from a toilet seat, a drinking fountain, a door knob, dishes, drinking glasses, food, or pets.

One would think that decisions like this result from misinformation about HIV. But in an interview with ABC News, a spokesperson for the school said they are most concerned that the boy will have sex with other students. I hope he wins this lawsuit.

Read the details:

From Reuters:

The family of an HIV-positive boy sued a boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania after it denied admission to the 13-year-old citing safety concerns, a school official said on Thursday.

The Milton Hershey School, a cost-free, private school for roughly 1,850 socially disadvantaged pre-kindergarten through high school students founded by the Hershey chocolate company, defended the controversial decision.

"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," said Connie McNamara, a spokesman for the Milton Hershey School, located roughly 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

"The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions that protect the well being of others," McNamara said.

The child's attorneys at the non-profit AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania sought to compare the school's actions to the Ryan White case, in which an HIV-positive Indiana boy was expelled from middle school in the 1980s because of the infection. That case led to the Ryan White Care Act of 1990.

Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of a real or perceived disability, including having HIV, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education.

White, who became infected after a hemophilia treatment and died of AIDS in 1990, became a national spokesman for AIDS research and public education and drew attention to the then little-known infection.

"Like Ryan White, this young man is a motivated, intelligent kid who poses no health risk to other students, but is being denied an educational opportunity because of ignorance and fear about HIV and AIDS," said AIDS Law Project Executive Director Ronda B. Goldfein, who is representing the boy and his mother in the lawsuit.

The boy "is an honor roll student and an avid athlete" who controls his HIV through a regimen of medication that does not impact his school schedule, according to the lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

From ABC News:

Connie McNamara, spokesperson for Milton Hershey, told ABCNews.com the school carefully evaluated the situation and the needs of its 1,850 students, which span from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

"We had to balance his rights and interests with our obligation to provide for the health and safety of other students," she said. "And this meets a direct threat."

McNamara knows well that coughing, hugging, and public restrooms won't cause someone to get HIV.

She said the school was most worried the boy would have sex -- if not now, at some point in his future years at the school, where students in groups of 10 to 12 live together in on-campus housing.

"Our kids are no different than teenagers anywhere else," she said. "Despite encouraging abstinence, we can not be 100 percent certain our kids are not engaging in sexual activity."