Teachers May Force Student HIV Testing
Gov. Jim Doyle signed first-of-its-kind legislation Friday that requires students to be tested for HIV if teachers believe they have been exposed to contaminated blood.
Privacy advocates say the law infringes on students’ privacy and could lead to discrimination against gays. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, called the law “a wild exaggeration” of AIDS fears.
“It’s appalling,” Davies said. “My first reaction was it can play to the worst ignorance and bigotry of people.”
Republican Sen. Carol Roessler introduced the bill after a student at an alternative school in Oshkosh cut his hand on a window and splattered blood in a teacher’s eye in 2001.
The teacher asked the student to submit to a blood test, but his parents refused, said Bob Geigle, director of pupil services for the local district. The teacher, who obtained a court order, tested negative for disease.
Geigle said the law is a necessary precaution for teachers, who too often face emergencies.
But Davies said the circumstances in which a teacher might be infected with HIV from a student’s blood are “so exceptional they’re almost nonexistent.”
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
