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6 year-old boy denied school admission because parents ‘rumoured’ to be HIV positive
View(s):Refusal to admit a six-year-old boy to a school in the Kurunegala district, because his parents are suspected to be HIV positive, has brought home the need to change people’s attitudes towards the disease. The Health Ministry now intends to take the message to the villages, educating people of AIDS and the need to include AIDS patients in society.
The national STD/AIDS Control Programme said the incident has brought home the need to evaluate the programmes on AIDS and carry the message to the village. Director Sisira Liyanage said the Health Ministry has been prioritising educating people at organisational and group level, but had failed to reach out to the villages.
“This incident necessitates the need to educate rural society,” he said. He said a meeting has already been scheduled for March 2, where the Kurunegala Medical officer and other health officers will meet parents and teachers of the Sambodhi school for a discussion on the disease.
He said the villagers’ attitude towards the woman and child was due to the lack of knowledge on the disease. “This makes them stigmatise those who contract the disease,” he said. However, he said that, in this case it was totally a rumour spread by the woman’s relatives. “It is sad, they should not be using the disease to get back at her,” he said.
Meanwhile, he confirmed that the boy had undergone tests and confirmed free of AIDS. However, he refused to divulge the mother’s status, saying, “these are confidential.” Meanwhile, the child’s mother, Chandani de Souza (37) speaking to the Sunday Times said that, although her child gained admission to the same school that previously denied him a place, last Friday, she would go ahead and seek justice at the Human Rights Commission for denying her son his fundamental right to education.
She went on to say that her action will be a lesson to society, warning them against adopting such attitudes towards people who may have the disease.
She said her son had been denied a place in the school nearest to her home in Kuliyapitiya, totally on rumours that the child’s father had died of AIDS. Rumour is also being spread that she is HIV positive.
It is learnt that the Kurunegala Zonal Director had given a letter denying the child a place in the school, and recommending the child be placed under probationary care. After much hue and cry from the media about the incident, the child has been given a place in the same school, under the direction of Education Minister, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.
Chandani went on to say that her son and she have been humiliated and traumatised by the incident and the Kurunegala Zonal Director’s letter had been a major blow to her. She said she had applied to the school on the basis of the ‘nearest school is the best school’, as propagated by the government.
The Principal of Sambohandiya Primary school had reportedly said he could not admit the child because of increasing pressure from parents who were apprehensive of sending their children to the same school as the boy.
Chandani claims that, following the rejection, she had subjected her son to the HIV test and has got a report from the STD/HIV, stating he is negative.
Meanwhile, Additional Zonal Director of Education W.W.T. Senaratne said the Kurunegala Zonal Director, who is overseas on an official tour, decided against granting a place in the school, to the boy, because of pressure from parents of students attending the school.
He said that, rumour has it the child’s father died of AIDS, while the mother who has worked overseas was probably HIV positive. Chandani who does odd jobs for her livelihood, as and when available, said that, ever since the incident people have stopped giving her work, and has difficulty finding work.
She claims her husband did not die of AIDS, but of tuberculosis and kidney problems. However, rumours were spread by her husband’s relatives who are against her, and blamed them for her present state of affairs. “This is threatening my very existence,” she said.
She explained that she left her husband when her child was three-months-old and living separately since then. “He was into drugs and use to abuse me, so I left him,” she said. “Even my parents and siblings are not very supportive and do not visit me at all,” she said. She revealed they had even tried to evict her from the house she is living in at present.
“This is all I have. Although the house belongs to me, the land belongs to my mother. My brothers want the land back,” she said.
She said she is willing to go away from her present location and settle down in another part of the country, away from all this abuse. “I will be happy to move out,” she said.
She had asked her brothers to compensate her for the house she had built on the land, but they have not responded positively.