Ryan White is set to realize one of his fondest wishes Friday–to return to the 7th grade classroom that he left 14 months ago when he was stricken with AIDS.
But it may be a classroom thinned of students by the fear, anger and frustration of parents who have lost a fight to keep him out.
”There`s just too much they don`t know about this disease,” said Retha Damon, a mother who predicted that many parents, like her, would keep their children home Friday.
A parents group unsuccessfully sought an injunction Wednesday barring the 14-year-old`s return on the ground it violated the state`s communicable disease law. Ryan is a hemophiliac who contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome from a contaminated blood product.
After a six-month legal struggle between Ryan`s mother, Jeanne White, and the Western School Board, a county health official ruled last week that his condition posed no threat to classmates and teachers. Although Ryan has both the AIDS antibody and virus, he was found otherwise healthy and uninfected by Dr. Alan Adler, Howard County public health officer.
”There is no evidence this disease is caused by casual contact, and there is no evidence he cannot sit in a classroom,” Adler said Wednesday.
But for many parents, the lack of evidence is inconclusive. Adler has behind his decision the weight of several studies, including one of family households of AIDS victims in the Feb. 6 New England Journal of Medicine that strongly indicates the disease cannot be transmitted by casual contact.
But worried parents base their fears on statistics maintained by the federal Centers for Disease Control that list 6 percent of AIDS cases as caused by unknown means of transmission.
”You`re dealing with a parent`s most precious commodity–their child. And you`re dealing with a disease that if you get it, you`re going to die,”
said Ronald Colby, principal of Western Middle School, in explaining the heated reaction of parents.
To ease their concerns, White has agreed to conditions for Ryan`s attendance that go beyond state health guidelines. He will drink and eat with disposable cups and utensils, use a private rest room and will not use the drinking fountains or swimming pool or participate in gym classes.
”I thought if we would give a little bit, it would at least help,” said White, who is concerned about the parents` response. ”We`ve tried to anticipate their biggest fears.”
A straw poll of students at Western Middle School indicates a wider range of response than among parents.
”Some kids are torn in several directions,” said Ruth Dougherty, who teaches a health class that Ryan will attend. ”A lot are influenced by their parents. But they`re also concerned about how others see them, how they`re perceived outside Western.”
Some Western students have been harassed at athletic events away from the school, Dougherty said.
”The kids on the other teams yell, `Why are you being so mean to Ryan?`
”
In Kokomo, a blue-collar town of auto parts plants, White has drawn some of the parents` wrath for allowing Ryan to go to school, where they say he may be subject to infection and derision.
”I`m worried about us giving him something and getting sick and dying,” said Karleen Davis, 12. This is a concern dismissed by Adler and White, who say Ryan could just as well be infected at a shopping mall as at school. In addition, Ryan is not totally without immune responses to low-grade infections, such as the common cold, Adler said.
White trusts in Ryan`s ability to handle his situation emotionally. She is more concerned about the kind of physical abuse young adolescents can sometimes mete out to each other, considering Ryan`s hemophilia.
”I just hope nobody tries to hurt him,” she said.
For the past week, middle school students have received hygiene instructions from teachers and the school nurse in the event Ryan should have a nosebleed or other bodily spills.
At the White home in a south Kokomo subdivision, life is conducted normally with no special precautions taken, White said.
Ryan dropped his paper route when one woman complained she did not want him folding her newspaper. But most neighbors have been supportive, White said. Neighborhood children flow in and out to play with Ryan or his sister, Andrea, 12. And the family regularly attends roller-skating meets in which Andrea competes.
Ryan`s weight is up to 76 pounds after two months in the hospital last fall, when his weight dropped to 55 pounds and his temperature often hovered at 105 degrees. Despite his illness, his mother said he earned high grades in everything but social studies during his home-bound semester, when he monitored classes by telephone.
White has been the object of criticism by some parents for not keeping Ryan home, where the health risks would be less.
”I`ve had second-thoughts, and there were moments when I wanted to forget the whole thing,” she said. ”But school is what Ryan wants most.”
At a meeting Wednesday night, several hundred parents discussed transfers, boycotts and home-study courses as alternatives for their children. As of Thursday, however, only five of Western Middle School`s 360 students had been withdrawn.
A Circuit Court judge in Kokomo will hear arguments Friday on the medical evidence lawyers for the parents group will present. But many already have conceded their fight is lost.
”They`re very frustrated here,” said Michael Van Winkle, a parent of two Western children. ”So many of the people they put their confidence in haven`t given them any assurances. Just vague maybes, and probablies.
”If they knew more about it, people would feel more comfortable with it.”
