Lawsuit Over Boy, 11, With AIDS Antibodies Thrown Out of Court

A court commissioner Thursday rejected a lawsuit that claimed an Orange County school district harmed an 11-year-old with AIDS antibodies by barring him from classes.

Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Jane D. Myers decided that lawyers for Channon Phipps and his guardian aunt failed to make a case in claiming that the Saddleback Valley Unified School District subjected them to emotional distress.

The commissioner’s ruling ended the litigation after school district lawyers challenged the grounds for the suit and asked for its dismissal.

Phipps, a hemophiliac, was provided with tutoring at home in 1985 while the district was formulating a policy about what to do with students who had been exposed to the AIDS virus.

His aunt, Deborha Phipps, 31, first went to court last fall, claiming that the tutoring was “totally inadequate” and that the district had improperly denied her nephew a classroom education. Earlier this year, a judge ordered the boy back to class after finding that he was not a danger to other students, teachers or himself.

Phipps then claimed $610,000 in damages and filed a second lawsuit when the district rejected the claim in February.

But Phipps’ lawyers could point to no law that required the district to admit the boy to the classroom and thus failed to state any grounds for the litigation, Myers ruled.

Attorneys for the district pointed to a state statute that allows school officials to exclude from classes children who “suffer from contagious or infectious disease.” They argued that whether the decision to exclude Channon was wise or not, the district was empowered to make it.

“The judge decided that the district did not violate any duty it owed to this boy,” said Joanne C. Schwartz, lawyer for the school district.

Phipps’ suit claimed that she was forced to get medical and psychiatric help for herself after the incident.

Blood tests showed that Channon’s blood contained AIDS antibodies, indicating that he had been exposed to the disease. None of the parties to two lawsuits claimed that the boy was suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The court order directing school officials to admit Phipps to classes remains in effect.

A third lawsuit, in which Phipps is seeking $1 million in damages, is pending against UCI Medical Center’s pharmacy, a doctor and a laboratory.

Phipps claims in that case that she was forced to use an inferior blood coagulant for Channon. The maker of the coagulant failed to use procedures to kill or render benign any AIDS virus that might be present, according to the lawsuit.

Phipps’ attorney, Merwin Auslander, could not be reached for comment.