ACLU Asks to Enter Case of Boy With AIDS Antibodies

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit involving an 11-year-old El Toro hemophiliac who has been barred from his school because he has AIDS antibodies in his blood.

In court papers filed Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, ACLU attorneys alleged that Channon Phipps’ constitutional right to an education has been violated by the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, which has not allowed him to return to classes since a test turned up the AIDS-linked antibodies. Channon does not have acquired immune deficiency syndrome, according to declarations made in court by his physician.

The ACLU suit states that the “intervenors, as representatives of California taxpayers, parents of children in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, and hemophiliacs who are similarly situated, also believe that the school district’s action is arbitrary, capricious and has the potential of keeping other children in the district from attending school, in violation of the child’s constitutional right to an education . . . . “

The suit alleges that the federal Centers for Disease Control have advised the medical community that casual contact among schoolchildren “appears to pose no risk of infection to others”; that the centers have recommended guidelines that include admitting to classes, under most circumstances, children exposed to, or afflicted with, AIDS, and that the district adopted the recommended guidelines on Sept. 18.

Deborha Phipps, Channon’s guardian and aunt, filed a lawsuit against district officials last November, demanding that he be permitted to attend classes. A judge has ordered district officials to appear in court Feb. 5 and explain why the boy should not be in school. The judge will rule on the ACLU’s request to intervene as a “friend of the court” at the same hearing.