Parents Protest--AIDS Victim to Be Tutored at Home

Responding to protests by parents with children enrolled in special education classes, Los Angeles County education officials have decided that a 3-year-old AIDS victim should be tutored for a language disability at home rather than attend a public school in Redondo Beach.

The decision this week followed a meeting between county school officials, who run the special education classes at Alta Vista School, and 13 parents with children enrolled in preschool programs at the school, according to Bob Grossman, spokesman for the county Office of Education.

Grossman said parents protested the child’s placement at Alta Vista, saying they fear that the infected toddler could pass the deadly disease to their children. Several parents were apparently concerned that the disease could be transmitted through the boy’s saliva, although county and state health officials said Wednesday that there is no medical evidence to support that claim.

A state health official in Berkeley said the incident is the first reported case in California involving an AIDS victim who wants to attend a public school.

“For all practical purposes we would not consider it a public health problem,” said Jim Chin, chief of the infectious disease branch of the state Department of Health Services. “But with all of the public concern about AIDS, it will be difficult to convince parents of that.”

Betty Agee, chief of the acute communicable disease control section of the county Department of Health Services, said the county adopted a policy on AIDS last month that encourages schools to accept AIDS patients whose physicians have recommended that they enroll.

“In general, children should be allowed in school and should not be treated like pariahs,” Agee said. “There is a lot of hysteria and unfounded concerns about AIDS. I would hope that in this case the decision was made in the interest of protecting the child, not because of the fear he could transmit.”

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) breaks down the body’s immune system and makes victims susceptible to other illnesses. Agee said research on AIDS shows that the virus can be transmitted only through blood or sexual contact, not through a “casual setting” such as a classroom environment.

“If we get mob rule and mass anxiety, it does not bode very well for the future,” she said.

The boy, who lives with foster parents in Torrance, contracted the disease as an infant from a blood transfusion, Grossman said. The foster parents have requested anonymity so that the boy can have “as normal an educational program as possible,” he said. He would not release further information about the boy.

The decision to provide county instruction at the boy’s home was made after consultations with his foster parents, Grossman said. The parents were concerned that the boy would be unable to receive adequate attention at the school because of publicity about the case and fears of his disease, he said.

Prudent Direction

“They empathized with the other parents and had no desire to threaten other kids,” Grossman said. “Everything considered, they felt the most prudent way was to go with home instruction.”

The opposition from other parents with children at the Redondo Beach school also helped persuade county officials to provide private instruction for the boy, he said. A spokeswoman for the Redondo Beach school district said district officials were not involved in the decision because the program is run by the county.

Grossman said the decision was not meant to establish a county policy on pupils with AIDS, describing it instead as a “placement decision.” Similar cases in the future will be handled on a “case-by-case basis,” he said.

Tests Scheduled

The boy is scheduled to take several tests in the next two weeks to determine the nature of his language disorder, Grossman said. He said county special education teachers, who will be selected on a volunteer basis, will start tutoring the boy in October. In an average year, the county provides home instruction for about 100 of the 14,000 special education students in the county, he said.

According to state statistics, there are only five surviving AIDS victims in California who are younger than 14. Two of those victims, including the Torrance boy, live in Los Angeles County, county officials report.