The Private Milton Hershey School, which is in the headlines tonight because it refused to admit a young honor student because he has the virus that causes Aids. Is this legal? Is it right? Here is ABC's Ron Claiborne.
The Milton Hershey School was founded more than a hundred years ago to help underprivileged students, all bankrolled by the great Hershey chocolate empire. And when a 13-year-old boy was HIV applied, the school said he would not be admitted. The teenager, who does not want his identity revealed, spoke to a local TV station in Philadelphia.
I feel that no other teenager should go through this being denied just because they have HIV.
Tonight he told us in an email that his life has turned into fear, anger, confusion and tears.
HIV is transmitted primarily through blood transfusion and sexual contact, never through casual everyday contact. The school says he was rejected because of the possibility that he might have uNPRotected sex.
The disease that this child has poses a direct threat to the students.
Hershey is a private school, but is this legal?
This kind of issue has been litigated over and over again for the last 30 years. And the defendants, in this case, would be the Hershey school, never win.
Legal analysts say a person can not be rejected even from a private school, simply because they are HIV positive.
I think that this little boy is putting the entire campus at risk, what did they base that on?
The boy's family is suing, demanding the school admitting him. Tonight the boy told us, he can never get the outcome he wants which he says it's not to feel the way people have made him fear.
Ron Claiborne, ABC news, New York.
