do u belive that children with the HIV virues should attend public schools?

Answer 1

Yes, so long as all necessary precautions are taken. You should be careful anyway... children can fall over and cut themselves all the time but you need to make sure other children don't come into contact with that blood... whether the child has HIV or not...

It's important that the child doesn't suffer more than necessary just because people are scared of what could happen but at the same time, you have to be careful not to endanger the other children

Answer 2

Yes I do (and this is an issue that was decided by the courts back in the late 80's...all children have a right to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive enviroment).

Parents are mentioning the use of universal precations and yes, these should be in place if there is a child in a class with ANY form of contagious disease...HIV, TB, etc. But it is important for everyone to realize that "normal" kids pose a far greater health risk to children with HIV than the reverse. HIV is not spread through casual contact. Yes, exsposure to infected blood or other body fluids does carry a risk, but outside of medical professionals, there have been no cases of HIV being transmitted through a sneeze or a cough. However, as any parent knows, colds and flus run rampant through most classrooms and schools..once they are there, it takes a long time for a class to get rid of them. These illnesses can be spread through casual contact quit easily, and for a child with HIV can be deadly. What will keep a normal child home for a few days can send an HIV child to the hospital for a few weeks.

Also, at this point, so many people are living normal, healthy lives with HIV. The medications available make this possible. HIV children today will grow up to be HIV adults, so they should be given a chance to learn, grow and socialize in a way that will best prepare them for the life they will lead. Keeping an otherwise healthy child out of school because of the slim possibility of infection is not fair to the child...again, if this rule is applied, than any child with a possibly infectious illness should be kept home until they are no longer contagious. Can you imagine how long a child with a simply cold would have to be kept out of class? If the child is healthy, the school is aware, the teachers and aides are properly trained and basic sanitation rules are followed, there is virtually no risk to any of the children. To ostracize these kids because of the virtually nonexsistant risk is just cruel.

Answer 3

Yes. The chances of transmission to another person in a casual (non intimate) setting like this is so minute, even if the infected child got a cut and some of the blood got on another child, that it's almost medieval thinking to worry about this as a risk factor. Catching the HIV virus is not a passive act; it really requires an effort if you look at the facts.

I can understand how the parental protective sense would kick in and make a parent compare HIV to leprosy, but they are not in any way the same. (For that matter, leprosy is pretty hard to transmit to another person, as well!)

My brother has worked as a repiratory therapist for 30 years, working with many many patients who have full blown AIDS, and even in that kind of setting with personal physical contact for the resp. care treatment, he has not contracted HIV. Of course, he wears gloves when he works with them, as he does with all of his patients, but he even got a needle stick doing a blood draw a few years back on a patient who was HIV positive, and even with that event, he did not get the AIDS virus. Of course the whole family was just sick about, and we worried, but he was given anti viral drugs right away, and tested regularly, and even with accidentally "sharing" of a needle with an infected person, he did not get the HIV virus. It's just not "easy" to catch: You have to work at being exposed to it.

I think the only reason to keep a kid out of public school is if you live in a community where the parents would break out the torches and come at the school in an angry mob over it. In that case, they are more of a danger to the infected kid than vice versa, so put him/her in private school for the kid's safety!

Answer 4

Yes I do believe that children with HIV should attend public schools. Just because the child has the virus, does not mean he or she would die anytime soon. There are antiretrovirals drugs available at clinics to help slow the process. So, instead of sitting around at home doing nothing and being left out of society, the child can interact with other children his/her age.
Yes, they have to be careful, but not be shunned from society for something that they had no control over.

Answer 5

Yes. Kids are more likely to catch strep throat from a classmate than they are HIV. One could even argue that the HIV children are in greater danger from their "healthy" classmates because the HIV children's immune systems are compromised.

I think these poor, unfortunate kids have enough problems without adding being thrown out of school to the list.

Answer 6

Every child has a right to an education. As long as universial precautions are taken, then I don't see the problem with children that have the HIV virus attending school.

Answer 7

No, although I know many disagree but think if you were the parent of another child in the same classroom. I know it's againest the right of the infected person to inform the other parents in the school about the infection. But I wouldn't want to know that my Johnny was playing with Susie, who has AIDS, on the playground.

I also know that the government has passed so many lawas saying that every child deserves the same right to an equal education ... I still would take my child out of school if I knew his classmate had AIDS.

Answer 8

Thus far everyone is thinking of taking precautions to ensure the safety of the other students. What about the safety of the child that has HIV? Can't that child easily get sick? I would say that the true danger is other children with colds and flu's and their parents not knowing enough to keep them home when they are sick. You have to look at both sides of the situation. Man, that's a hard question!

Answer 9

If it was your child would you want them to be outcast? No, you would want them to blend in with the rest of society! So my answer is YES. I'm sure there are children in the school currently with the hiv virus.

Answer 10

Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. Some precautions would have to be take. For example the students with HIV wouldn't be able to participate in things like PE.