School Must Readmit Boy With AIDS Antibodies

An 11-year-old hemophiliac whose blood contains AIDS antibodies must be allowed to return to school, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Channon Phipps, who was assigned to a fifth-grade class at Rancho Canada Elementary School in El Toro two weeks ago in anticipation of the ruling, may be back on the playground by Monday, his attorney said. Classes are in recess this week.

Channon does not have acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but the presence of antibodies indicates that he has been exposed to the deadly virus, presumably from a blood extract he takes for the hemophilia he has suffered since birth.

District officials, who said they wanted to make sure that Channon could not spread the disease, have paid to have him tutored at home. His aunt and guardian, Deborha Phipps, sued the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in November seeking to have him admitted to school.

In ordering the district to admit Channon, Judge Harmon G. Scoville said, “There’s nothing before me that shows me Channon Phipps has AIDS, (and) he poses no danger to himself or to the other 17,000 students” in the district.

The judge said he based his decision on an examination by Dr. Thomas J. Prendergast, county director of disease control. Both the judge and Prendergast recommended that Channon be reevaluated periodically if his guardian or school officials are “concerned about any change in his behavior or physical condition.”