Boy With AIDS Suspended After Biting Schoolmate

A 4-year-old boy with AIDS was suspended from school because he bit another child just six days after his parents won a 10-month battle to have him admitted, the boy’s father said today.

Ryan Thomas, who contracted the deadly disease--acquired immune deficiency syndrome--through a blood transfusion shortly after birth, will not be allowed back into Santa Rosa Road Elementary School unless a special placement committee approves, his father, Robin Thomas, said.

Anthony Avina, superintendent of the 4,600-student Atascadero Unified School District, said he asked Thomas to keep the youngster at home “because the young man exhibited a form of behavior that necessitated confinement.”

“We have asked him to stay home, and we’ve offered to provide a home teacher, which was refused,” Avina said today.

Avina said a hearing was planned Friday before the placement committee that had earlier recommended that the boy be allowed to attend the school to determine if the placement was correct. The panel is composed of a district psychologist, consultant and attorney, a county health officer, a teachers’ representative, a PTA representative and the school nurse.

“The family is frustrated, and we understand that,” Avina said. Asked to comment on Thomas’ threat to sue the district for discrimination, he said, “School districts are accustomed to being sued. . . . He’s frustrated.”

Ryan was playing with friends on the kindergarten floor Monday when another boy came up behind him, jabbed him in the back with his elbow, grabbed Ryan’s hair and wrestled him to the floor, Thomas said.

Ryan “turned his head a little bit and bit him (the other boy) on the leg to let him go,” Thomas said. “He did not break the skin, either. (It was) barely enough to make a mark.”