Judge Orders Tests for Boy Barred From School by AIDS

A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that an 11-year-old hemophiliac barred from school because his blood has AIDS antibodies should be reinstated unless new examinations show that the boy is contagious.

Channon Phipps has not attended his elementary school since September and has been tutored at his El Toro home at district expense. In November, his aunt, Deborha Phipps, who is also his guardian, sued the Saddleback Valley Unified School District seeking his reinstatement.

The presences of AIDS antibodies means the person can be a carrier of the disease, but not all those with the antibodies develop AIDS. The boy does not have AIDS, according to his family doctor.

Vulnerable to Tumors

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, destroys the body’s immune system, leaving the victim vulnerable to a variety of tumors and infectious diseases. There is no known cure. AIDS is not spread through casual contact, but is transmitted through body fluids, primarily by sexual contact and the sharing of unsterilized hypodermic needles. Those at highest risk include homosexual and bisexual men and intravenous drug users.

Judge Harmon G. Scoville ordered Orange County’s chief health officer, Dr. Tom Prendergast, to examine Channon within 12 days to determine if he is “infectious or contagious.” Scoville is expected to rule on the boy’s reinstatement at a hearing Feb. 20.

“I’ll tell you right now,” Scoville said, if it is determined that the boy poses no danger to other schoolchildren, “I don’t see any reason he shouldn’t be back in school, and I don’t think the district disagrees.”

David C. Larsen, representing the district, told the judge that the examination he ordered has been requested twice by the district. But Phipps’ attorney, Merwin Auslander, said district officials did not ask for an examination of the boy until Jan. 26, 1986, five months after they learned he had tested positive for the AIDS-linked virus. Auslander said Deborha Phipps signed a release of Channon’s medical records that same day.

“I’m glad, I guess,” Channon Phipps said Wednesday afternoon after the judge’s ruling. “But I’ve gotta go do my homework now, so bye.”