According to Gretchen Becker in the Indianapolis Star, an Indianapolis girl who is HIV-positive has filed suit against a local school district, alleging that educators failed to halt harassment and bullying by the girl's classmates.
The Star connected the story to that of Ryan White, the pioneering AIDS activist and victim who was banned from an Indiana school in 1985.
Read more below.
Please read the story in full at the link.
Here are some highlights:
The lawsuit, which does not say how the girl contracted the virus, was filed Tuesday against Washington Township Schools. It claims the district violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by allowing the girl's classmates to call her names, harass her and bully her so much that she was afraid to show up at Westlane Middle School.
(snip)
The harassment began, according to the suit, after the girl told a friend she had been diagnosed as HIV-positive. That friend told her sister, and news spread throughout the school. She soon had a nickname -- a play on the word AIDS -- and one day found a sign on her locker that said, "No AIDS at Westlane." The lawsuit says the bullying was so traumatic it caused seizures.
The student's mother met with counselors at the Northside school in April 2007 because she wanted her daughter's harassers to be suspended, the lawsuit says. It said the school district warned the students but didn't remove them from class. The mother met with counselors three more times in 2007. The suit says a friend of the girl's also reported the bullying.
Washington Township Superintendent James Mervilde refused to comment but did point out that the district has policies against bullying and harassment as well as procedures for handling bodily fluids.
The State also has rules, including confidentiality rules.
This year, the student's soccer coach asked if she had AIDS. Her mother met with school officials again in September.
Ryan White's mother, Jeanne White Ginder, who is active in HIV/AIDS education, said,
"A child should be able to go to school. People are just scared of the unknown."
Telling a friend about contracting HIV might have been a release of pressure, she said, and it shouldn't have triggered harassment.
"In a way, we were fortunate because Ryan's identity was known at the beginning," said Ginder, who now lives in Florida. "When the identity is a secret, all of a sudden, in one day, you can face hostility and discrimination."
Obviously, this case has not yet come to trial, so it is unknown whether the allegations are true.
Nevertheless, tolerance programs and HIV/AIDS education should be a standard part of the curriculum.
Cross-posted at BlueIndiana