Parents to Keep Boy With AIDS Out of School for a While
A 5-year-old AIDS victim, who won a landmark court ruling allowing him to return to school despite having bitten a classmate, may be kept home by his parents after all, his father said Tuesday.
Robin Thomas said he and his wife will keep their son, Ryan, out of school at least for the rest of this week “to decide what will be the best for Ryan.”
The school board was to vote late Tuesday night whether to appeal a preliminary injunction issued Monday in which U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler, who ordered the Atascadero district to readmit the boy to kindergarten.
The judge had decided that “the overwhelming evidence presented . . . shows there is nothing to fear from this child.”
District Supt. Anthony Avina said he believes some parents may pull their children out of school, as a result of the decision, but “we’re prepared to take Ryan back into class any time.”
When Ryan initially enrolled last September, a few parents pulled their youngsters out of class, and those pupils have not returned since Ryan’s departure, Avina said.
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