Fourteen-year-old AIDS victim Ryan White, chipper and eager, returned to a nearly half-empty Western Middle School Friday, took a test in math–his best subject–and said he was treated ”just like anybody else.”
His fellow 7th grade students welcomed and surrounded Ryan in his health class, said teacher Ruth Dougherty.
”They didn`t pull away from him. It was like he is the new kid in school,” she said.
But 151 of the school`s 360 students did not show up for classes Friday, and many parents of those students said they were keeping their children home because of Ryan`s return.
For most of the students who did attend classes, it was the first time they had seen Ryan other than on television newscasts.
Ryan, a hemophiliac, was withdrawn from the school in December, 1984, when he became sick with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which he contracted from a contaminated blood product used to treat his hemophilia.
There were concerns he would be shunned by other students, but school principal Ronald Colby said Ryan was welcomed, patted on the back and generally accepted by the students who attended school Friday.
”I saw no one cringe up against the wall or anything,” Colby said.
He said Friday`s absenteeism rate was 42 percent, however, compared with an average rate of 10 to 15 percent over the last two weeks. He said absenteeism had been high because of a flu outbreak.
”I`m not disappointed with the student turnout,” Colby said. ”I was frankly surprised that we had over 50 percent of our students.”
Fifteen miles away in Kokomo, lawyers for parents who had sought to block Ryan`s return prepared again to argue their case before Circuit Judge Alan Brubaker later Friday. On Wednesday, Brubaker denied the parents an injunction to prevent Ryan from attending school, and some legal observers in Kokomo said chances were slim that an injunction would be granted in response the parents` renewed effort.
Of the parents who kept their 6th- and 7th grade children home in protest Friday, 32 called in to acknowledge Ryan`s presence as the reason for their children`s absence. Parents of seven students have withdrawn their children from the school permanently in the last week, a school spokesman said.
”I`m scared. The kids are scared, and life`s just too precious,” said Kathy Shepherd, who with her husband has decided to keep their two middle school children home ”until we`re given proof there`s no danger.”
But there were no protesting parents brandishing picket signs to greet Ryan`s 8 a.m. arrival at the school with his younger sister, Andrea, and his best friend, Heath Bowen.
The three were driven to a side entrance by Ryan`s former stepfather, Steven Ford, to avoid a throng of reporters awaiting their arrival at the main entrance.
On his way home, however, Ryan stopped to tell the reporters he was
”glad to be back” and is ”looking forward to getting back to a normal life.”
He did not see the only protester, 17-year-old Donald Hochstedler, who walked over from the adjacent high school at the sprawling rural educational complex carrying a sign that said ”Students Against AIDS.”
Extraordinary precautions that exceed state health department guidelines have been taken at Western Middle School: Ryan will use a private restroom, drink and eat with disposable implements, will not use the school`s water fountains and will not participate in gym class or swim in the school pool. The building will be fogged nightly with a disinfectant circulated through the heating system. And students have been instructed to distance themselves should Ryan have a nosebleed.
Ryan took classes Friday in English, science and social studies as well as health and math.
Colby said he was encouraged about Ryan`s enrollment because of telephone conversations with the principal and nurse at a Massachusetts school where a 13-year-old AIDS victim is enrolled.
”They gave us all indications that, hey, it will work,” Colby said.
But Ryan is the only young AIDS victim whose presence in a school is widely known. In the Massachusetts school, it is said that only the principal and the nurse know the identity of the student with AIDS.
But Colby was less optimistic about a change of heart among the parents who fought Ryan`s enrollment.
”It`s not something that`s going to go away in the night,” he said. ”I think it`s going to take a long time.
”The closer they come to finding a cure for AIDS, I think that`s what will change their emotions.”
