News
Shunned child gets offers from many schools
The mother of the six-year-old child who was rumoured to have AIDS had removed the child from Sambodhi school which he was admitted to, following protests from the parents of the school.
It is learnt that the children at the Sambodhi Gashandiya Primary school in Kuliyapitiya had kept away from school following the admission of a six-year-old boy to the school.
School Principal H.P.M.Wimaladharma said all 178 children in the primary school had kept away from school because the boy’s parents were alleged to be HIV positive.
The North Western Province Education Minister and the health authorities visited the school and held discussions with the parents of school children explaining that the child had tested negative in the HIV test conducted by the STD/AIDS programme unit of the Health Ministry and that AIDS could not be contracted merely by mingling with an HIV positive person. They stressed the importance of accepting such persons. But the parents refused to budge.
“The children did not turn up at school for the last three days,” the principal said.
It is learnt that only after Education Minister S. Samantha Rajapaksa promised to remove the child from the school that they agreed to send their children to school. On Thursday the primary school was back to normal with over 170 children attending classes.
“Only around five stayed back, they may be sick,” the principal said.
Meanwhile Education Minister Rajapaksa promised the mother to have her child admitted to a different school in the district, away from the child’s home.
“We had to remove the child from the school because if he continues studying in that school he will be traumatised by the hostility that could be directed at him by his fellow students,” he said.
The Minister said that he will make appeals to other schools in the vicinity and find a placement for the child. Further he said that it will be good for the mother and child to move out of the present environment as they will feel threatened by the community.
The Sunday Times learns that various offers have been made to offer a school for the child, but so far there have been no confirmed offers.