In case you missed it, this statement was released on December 1, which was World AIDS Day. I can not let this one slide by and was on facebook until late last night with defenders of MHS. I must say these people are very biased and uneducated.
Here is the entire statement from the Hershey School:Today, Milton Hershey School had planned to file a request in federal court asking the court to review our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students.
We had been in discussions with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which is representing this 13-year-old boy. Recognizing the complex legal issues, the School was preparing to ask the court to weigh in on this matter. Unfortunately, attorneys for the young man took the adversarial action of filing a lawsuit against the School.
The decision to deny enrollment was a challenging one for us to make. Like all our enrollment decisions, we need to balance our desire to serve the needs of an individual child seeking admission with our obligation to protect the health and safety of all 1,850 children already in our care.
Attorneys for this young man and his mother have suggested that this case is comparable to the Ryan White case. But this case is actually nothing like the Ryan White case. Milton Hershey School is not a day school, where students go home to their family at the end of the day. Instead, this is a unique home-like environment, a pre-K to 12 residential school where children live in homes with 10 to 12 other students on our campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well-being of others.
That is why, after careful review and analysis, we determined we could not put our children at risk.
By Dan Stamm for NBC News (Philadelphia)
Now, my take on this. I am sure the MHS is a privately owned and privately funded school and I am sure they do not have to let this boy in. That is neither here nor there. What upsets me is the reasoning and ignorance behind the statements "our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students." and "In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others."
We work very hard teaching people that HIV/AIDS is a chronic disease and must be managed as such, and then we encounter educated people like this that runs screaming from a 13 year old boy who carries the infection, just breaks my heart.
I volunteer with a group that is funded by Ryan White. The Clinic is funded by Ryan White. Education is one of the main goals of Ryan White. The White family did not ever want another child to go through what their son went through, hence the goal of education. We deal with AIDS clients on a daily basis. I feed them, hug them, kiss them good bye. I have set by bedsides as life ebbed from the frail body and held them so they were not alone. I remain negative.
One of the defenders last night told me they have a trust fund and do not need my piddly amount of money that I spend on Hershey products. That came as a shock to me because I use a can or two of cocoa every month and sometimes I grab a candy bar. I will not go into all the conversations on facebook last night, but I must post this one. Well, never mind. They have suspended all posts on their site and it is gone, but I remember it and it went like this "I AM A FIREFIGHTER AND GO TO THIS SCHOOL AND I DO NOT WANT HIM HERE!" There was more, but it is all a moot point.
So I say this to you; I will no longer buy any Hershey product. I can not in any way bring myself to put another cent into the coffers of a member of this world community that refuses to be educated in a disease that strikes the innocent as well as the not so innocent. We are all God's creatures and Hershey makes no mention of compassion, understanding and they are sending 1,850 students into the world every year to carry on thier message of intolerance. If the people I encountered on thier site last night are any representation of these self same students I do not want to meet any of them on the street. They have become mean intolerant big people. I will stay here in my little world and do my humble service to the clients who need me and I will send a donation to this kid as soon as I get a site for him. Not for his legal fund, but because it is kids like this who become the Ryan White's of tomorrow.
now:\r\nhttp://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000005217789&pubid=21000000000389168\r\n\r\nOr,
Here is the entire statement from the Hershey School:Today, Milton Hershey School had planned to file a request in federal court asking the court to review our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students.
We had been in discussions with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which is representing this 13-year-old boy. Recognizing the complex legal issues, the School was preparing to ask the court to weigh in on this matter. Unfortunately, attorneys for the young man took the adversarial action of filing a lawsuit against the School.
The decision to deny enrollment was a challenging one for us to make. Like all our enrollment decisions, we need to balance our desire to serve the needs of an individual child seeking admission with our obligation to protect the health and safety of all 1,850 children already in our care.
Attorneys for this young man and his mother have suggested that this case is comparable to the Ryan White case. But this case is actually nothing like the Ryan White case. Milton Hershey School is not a day school, where students go home to their family at the end of the day. Instead, this is a unique home-like environment, a pre-K to 12 residential school where children live in homes with 10 to 12 other students on our campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well-being of others.
That is why, after careful review and analysis, we determined we could not put our children at risk.
By Dan Stamm for NBC News (Philadelphia)
Now, my take on this. I am sure the MHS is a privately owned and privately funded school and I am sure they do not have to let this boy in. That is neither here nor there. What upsets me is the reasoning and ignorance behind the statements "our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students." and "In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others."
We work very hard teaching people that HIV/AIDS is a chronic disease and must be managed as such, and then we encounter educated people like this that runs screaming from a 13 year old boy who carries the infection, just breaks my heart.
I volunteer with a group that is funded by Ryan White. The Clinic is funded by Ryan White. Education is one of the main goals of Ryan White. The White family did not ever want another child to go through what their son went through, hence the goal of education. We deal with AIDS clients on a daily basis. I feed them, hug them, kiss them good bye. I have set by bedsides as life ebbed from the frail body and held them so they were not alone. I remain negative.
One of the defenders last night told me they have a trust fund and do not need my piddly amount of money that I spend on Hershey products. That came as a shock to me because I use a can or two of cocoa every month and sometimes I grab a candy bar. I will not go into all the conversations on facebook last night, but I must post this one. Well, never mind. They have suspended all posts on their site and it is gone, but I remember it and it went like this "I AM A FIREFIGHTER AND GO TO THIS SCHOOL AND I DO NOT WANT HIM HERE!" There was more, but it is all a moot point.
So I say this to you; I will no longer buy any Hershey product. I can not in any way bring myself to put another cent into the coffers of a member of this world community that refuses to be educated in a disease that strikes the innocent as well as the not so innocent. We are all God's creatures and Hershey makes no mention of compassion, understanding and they are sending 1,850 students into the world every year to carry on thier message of intolerance. If the people I encountered on thier site last night are any representation of these self same students I do not want to meet any of them on the street. They have become mean intolerant big people. I will stay here in my little world and do my humble service to the clients who need me and I will send a donation to this kid as soon as I get a site for him. Not for his legal fund, but because it is kids like this who become the Ryan White's of tomorrow.
now:\r\nhttp://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000005217789&pubid=21000000000389168\r\n\r\nOr,
