Jason Robertson, 23; Boy With HIV Fought for Regular Classes

Jason Robertson, 23, whose battle to attend school as a boy with AIDS in the 1980s helped other children with the virus overcome its stigma, died Sept. 4 at his mother’s home in Granite City, Ill.

Robertson was diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS when he was 5. He contracted the virus through blood products used to treat his hemophilia.

At his mother Tammie Robertson’s suggestion, the Granite City School District designated a special classroom in a trailer to shield him from controversy.

But he was lonely without contact with other children, so she asked the district to let him attend regular classes. The district refused, siding with parents who feared, contrary to medical fact, that their children could become infected through casual contact.

A federal judge ordered the district in 1988 to admit the child to regular class.

Robertson became close friends with Ryan White, an Indiana boy with AIDS whose legal struggle to attend a grade school in his state became a national story in 1985. White died in 1990.

As the drugs that kept AIDS at bay began to aggravate his hemophilia, Robertson stopped taking medication. Without the drugs, he was prone to infection and began to lose weight.

He weighed just 84 pounds on his final trip to the doctor.