Schoolboy isolated as being HIV afflicted ....
finally gets school
But unable to proceed further
Because of a suspicion that villagers had regarding a father of a certain child in Kuliyapitiya area supposed to have died as a result of AIDS, the child was rejected by a number of schools when he was to be admitted on the assumption that he too had been
infected by AIDS and as a consequence the child's mother had started a protest in front of the eduction office, as was reported recently. Though education authorities tried to get a school for the child during the past week, the child concerned is now faced with an even worse predicament. It is that parents of all children in the classroom to which the child was admitted had taken steps to remove their children. The parents had even gone to the extent of informing the principal of the school that they would be taking home all students of the school.Under these circumstances though it was a case of true happiness for being able to admit the child to a school, nevertheless the parents had isolated this child and his teacher in these circumstances which only displayed the ignorance of those parents, so clearly. The fact that those parents refused to accept evidence of the medical certificate that the child concerned was free from AIDS which actually created an issue in this instance. Even if the said child was affected with AIDS, the aforementioned parents of Kuliyapitiya lacked the knowledge to simply understand that it would under no circumstance be contagious to other children in the school as such.
The 6 year old child of a mother of 2 children living a short distance away from Kuliyapitiya town had to face this most unfortunate tragedy. She had stated that she has had to face social discrimination in this manner because of a rumour that spread around that her husband died after suffering from AIDS three months ago. This is what she said: "It's not true that my husband got sick and died from AIDS. Those days so many stories went round. The Montessori teacher took steps to check my son's blood samples for the purpose of releasing us from this very embarassment and blame. What is very clearly stated in the child's blood report is that he is totally free from AIDS. It however was not strong enough to put a stop for these rumours going the rounds or to solve this problem. Though I approached about ten schools to admit the child, it was futile. It was after that that I had to start a protest in front of the Kuliyapitiya Education Office. When that came over the news the educational authorities mediated and managed to get a school for the child. But even on the very first day the parents took action to take the other children out of the school. The child thus became isolated in the classroom. What the principal says is that preparations are underway now for the other 186 children too to be removed from school. The child now has no father ... no school. Stories also have already gone round. I am helpless!"
Previous article about the incident, from here