P.V. Peninsula School District Studies Formal AIDS Policy

An AIDS policy is being prepared by the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District that would formally grant to teachers and other employees who contract the disease the right to continue working for as long as they can satisfactorily perform their duties.

The draft policy, which received its first reading at a board meeting this week, also would put the district on record as allowing any student with AIDS to continue attending classes, “with a few exceptions.”

District spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said the proposed policy is based on laws and court decisions that already ban discrimination against victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in schools and elsewhere.

Mahr and officials in other South Bay districts said they are not aware of any AIDS cases in their schools currently, so the move to formalize AIDS policies should not be interpreted as a sign that the fatal disease has begun to invade the campuses.

“But AIDS is a serious fact of life in our society and the thinking is that we ought to be as prepared as possible to deal effectively with it, if a case should arise,” she said.

Legal Advice Urged

While approving the be-prepared theory, board members expressed caution about how it might work in practice. Trustee Joseph P. Sanford, noting disputes in other districts confronted with actual AIDS cases, urged the district administration to consult the best available legal advice before bringing the proposed policy back for final approval.

Other South Bay districts that have wrestled with the problem say their policies, whether written or informal, generally state an intention to deal with each case on an individual basis.

“A couple of years ago we tried our hand at writing a formal policy, but nothing we came up with seemed to be enforceable,” said Paul Sittel, an administrator in the Torrance Unified School District. “So our policy, when and if a problem arises, is to deal with it on a case-by-case basis.”

Dealing with it, Sittel said, would involve working with the doctor and parents, in the case of a student, and “hopefully coming to a mutual agreement on what is best for the child, considering all of the factors.”

One factor invariably mentioned by school officials is concern for the “health and safety” of all students and employees. But the officials found it difficult to relate that concern to an AIDS situation, in view of assurances by health experts that the risk of transmitting the disease in a campus setting is virtually non-existent or minimal.

AIDS is spread through sexual intercourse, particularly anal intercourse; by the sharing of unsterilized hypodermic needles; through blood transfusions, and by a woman to a fetus during pregnancy.

Modified Policies

The South Bay Union High School District is among school systems that have modified longstanding policies on communicable diseases in an attempt to take into account possible future cases of AIDS.

But again, said administrator Ed King, “what it means is that we would deal with each case individually. We would want to do what’s best for the youngster or employee, while taking into account the particular medical or other circumstances.”

King said the district’s policy has never been tested “and we’re praying it never will be.”

Many school systems, particularly the smaller ones with limited staff and money, are holding back on declaring AIDS policies in hopes that the county or state will come up with an authoritative model that can be adopted readily, said Bob Grossman, a spokesman for the county Department of Education.

But the “perfect model” has yet to be developed, he said.

“AIDS is a very volatile issue, and school boards everywhere are really looking for the best way to deal with it,” he said. “We’ve sent out guidelines and we sponsor seminars on various aspects of the problem, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty on what should be done.”

‘Fragile Virus’

In presenting the Peninsula district’s proposed policy, administrators Charlene M. Gillespie and George Hardesty offered an overview of the AIDS phenomenon and then focused on its application to a school environment.

“The AIDS virus is very fragile and can survive outside the human body for only a very short time,” the authors say in a written report, quoting government health experts. “It does not linger on doorknobs, clothing, food, dishes, glasses, utensils or toilet seats.

“None of the identified cases of AIDS virus in the United States are known to have been transmitted in schools. . . . Abundant evidence indicates that casual person-to-person contact, as would occur among school-aged children and adults, should pose no risk.”

Therefore, the report concludes, there is no reason to fear the presence of AIDS victims on a campus. Teachers and other employees should be allowed to continue working, so long as they can perform their duties, and students should be permitted to continue in regular classes, so long as they are able to keep up with their studies.

A “few exceptions,” particularly among preschool children, may occur in the case of youngsters who are unable to control bodily secretions, have open skin lesions, or show a tendency to bite, the report says. The vulnerability of AIDS victims to other infections, such as measles and chicken pox, would be another factor in determining attendance.

Knowledge about AIDS victims would be limited to “those persons with a direct need to know,” the report says, noting that unauthorized disclosures would be a violation of state laws protecting the confidentiality of the victims.

Grossman, the county education spokesman, said one of the bitter facts of AIDS is that the disease rarely causes a problem at the preschool level.

“Most of the little kids with AIDS are born with the disease,” he said. “Very, very few survive long enough to get into school.”