School Access Permanent for Boy Exposed to AIDS

Without school district opposition, an Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday made permanent a court order that has allowed Channon Phipps, a 12-year-old hemophiliac whose blood contains AIDS antibodies, to attend classes for the last nine months.

Saddleback Unified School District officials did not object to the permanent order, which was based on a preliminary decision made by a judge last February that the boy does not pose a danger to other students, teachers or himself.

“Our position has always been that the (February court order) has been consistent with the school’s position,” said David C. Larsen, attorney for the district. “Our position has always been that the child should only attend school if he poses no risk, and there should be independent verification of that.”

Channon was provided tutors at his home last fall as Saddleback officials developed an AIDS policy. Blood tests showed that the boy had been exposed to the AIDS virus, but it was never suggested that he suffered from the disease.

While district officials were formulating the policy, a lawsuit was filed seeking to force Channon’s admission to classes. Because of “lack of information” about the disease and how it is transmitted, district officials took several months to write a policy, Larsen said.

Earlier Decision

The decision comes one day after a federal judge ordered an Atascadero school to readmit a 5-year-old boy with AIDS who was banned from kindergarten when he bit a classmate. The decision, in which the boy was declared to be entitled to protection as a “handicapped student” under the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, was hailed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a precedent to be considered by any communities seeking to ban AIDS victims from classrooms.

In the Phipps case, Judge James A. Jackman also awarded $10,000 in attorney fees to the boy’s lawyer, Merwin Auslander. Larsen said district officials were considering an appeal of only that portion of Jackman’s decision.

“My clients feel very strongly that attorney’s fees are not appropriate,” Larsen said. “They believe very strongly that the litigation was not necessary, that the matter could have been resolved without it.”

Three weeks ago, a judge threw out of court a separate lawsuit filed by Auslander, claiming $610,000 in damages from the district on Channon’s behalf.

A third lawsuit is pending, seeking $1 million in damages for the boy from the UCI Medical Center pharmacy, a doctor and a laboratory. Lawyers for the boy claimed in that case that he was forced to use an inferior blood coagulant that was produced without proper safeguards.