Regarding HIV in India

[jackofallgeeks]

This article talks about a boy who was kicked out of school (well, 'sent home and told to never come back') because he was HIV-positive. And apparently it's not the first time, nor isolated incidents. There's apparently at least one (I would imagine several) school specifically for HIV-positive children.

My response: What? Why? Last I heard, you couldn't get HIV from proximity or touch. It's not communicated except through bodily fluids, right? So why kick a four-year old to the street?

Comments

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

There's still a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about HIV/AIDS out there (e.g., South Africa's health minister claiming that it can be cured with garlic and beetroot). And there's still also a lot of shame associated with the disease in many places (I put together some materials on protection of HIV/AIDS workers in India a few years ago for Amnesty; they're often targets of attack b/c the disease is seen as connected with homosexuality and other kinds of perceived sexual deviance).

So, basically, ::shrug::

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

He might get a bloody nose? ::rolls eyes:: As we all know, people are an idiot.

[higheststar.livejournal.com]

Actually there is a bigger picture out there. (I work for a firm that aims at placing special needs students.) A lot of the time these students attend separate schools because they have medical needs that the mainstream public school cannot offer. Many of these kids are often sick or take heavy medications that cause sideeffects that also are not appropriate for mainstream classrooms. Therefore, they do attend schools that can meet their needs. The public school system heavily practices mainstream under a Supreme Court Ruling. In other words, if a kid can go to a public school, that is where they are sent if possible. Now I am far from an advocate for the public school system since I spend most of my week writing motions and hearing requests for when they screw up (I've seen an LD HIV kid places in a school by the DCPS that is for children with SEVERE mental and phsycial disabilities that was totally inappropriate), but I do think there is a bigger educational picture that a lot of people don't get.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

OK, I can see where you might have a point here, but, uhm, that's not quite the case in question. That is, firstly it's in India, not the US, so the legal scope is different and anything the Supreme Court or Congress tells us is, uhm, not really compelling there. But you still make good points about special needs. Sure. But in the article it notes that the school administrators acted in response to threats and complaints made from other parents -- ie, this isn't about the kid, it's about what people think of the kid.