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NORMANDY, Missouri (AP) -- Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.
Midwest high school copes with HIV scare - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/23/high.school.hiv.ap/index.html - broken link)
That's very interesting, since I will be subbing there next week. Wow. I'm glad to know this going in though, b/c a lot of the kids will be very upset. Wow. The article says that many of them want to transfer out of the district--it seems that they can't get dates.
HIV scare puts Mo. school in uncertain territory - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081024/ap_on_re_us/high_school_hiv;_ylt=Ao_KtiXmy7JXbYYByew0wOAEtbAF - broken link)
Well I find it extremely ridiculous that I had to do a HIV search to find this topic and that it does not seem to be of interest of many people. This should be of major concern for all of America. There is absolutely no information in the news to tell anyone any information about what the hell is actually going on in that school. Even knowing one gen X’er should be enough to let someone know how HIV is easily spread. While it can be easily spread, it does actually take some effort and had to be deliberate to affect so many people.
I certainly have not forgotten high school and can remember very well what it is like during that stage of development in life. No matter what those school officials are saying or media is reporting, that school is certainly not operating normally. Hell even with as minor of an outbreak as lice is, the students and faculty go insane. Lice can not only be treated but also cured. I have to say HIV goes a bit beyond lice and it certainly does not randomly jump from one member of society to the other.
I have no idea what is going on in Normandy, MO schools but the fact that it happened at all should bring great exclamation and worry to the entirety of the American public about our public school systems. The fact that this is such a short blurb on the news and that everything is worded so carefully as not to entice panic speaks volumes of the nature of the cover-up that not only is expressed in the article it is also being set forth as something that should just be plainly accepted as everyday routine activities. WTF!!!
Now I do agree in confidential records between Dr. and patient.... But when whatever you have done becomes a problem that affects not only you and your family but also everyone that has a child or knows a child in a public school, I firmly believe that you as a single entity or as group however this event may have unfolded is no longer confidential and should be released to the public as a whole so if for no other reason than expose the occurrence as a learning experience for the nation as a whole and ensure that this same issue does not occur again in any other public entity throughout America and possibly the world.
If this event comes down to just one person that amazingly became HIV positive by apparently sleeping with or sharing needles or doing anything that is associated with the spread of HIV with a huge portion of the student body then they should be treated as any other person in society who has deliberately spread a potentially lethal disease / virus and face murder charges; even if they unknowingly were spreading the virus. Anyone that has been alive over the past 30 years knows that any activity associated the spread of this virus has to have a conscious effort placed behind it. You do not accidentally spread HIV!!! This story should explode and rightfully be uncovered for America to see the disaster for it is.
Actively pursuing anything that constitutes the available means of spreading this virus is like playing Russian roulette with your life and to do so on a large scale that affects the lives of an entire student body is like giving a baby the detonator to a bomb attached to a public event. It is blatantly unacceptable and should be exposed as such.
The fact that the school system is also only offering one testing and then making it the responsibility the student’s families to discover later is unacceptable. HIV does not show up in testing immediately after exposure and can go undetected for reasonably long periods of time. If for any reason that this school could have prevented the spread of this virus or even if they related to the event or events in which the possible spread occurred, the school system & the responsible person or persons should be responsible for the victim’s now very expensive medical treatment for the remainder of each victim’s life.
I highly encourage that anyone who reads about this event actively pursue efforts to expose this incident for what it actually is.
Write your school board, senator, congressperson etc, immediately.
what the hell!? what, was there some sort of giant, drugged, drunken orgy going on? how the heck could 50 kids from one school be exposed to HIV?
what i found odd is that the fifty kids who might have been exposed don't seem to have been told that they, specifically, need to be tested. unless i misunderstood, they appear to be offering testing to the entire student body, on a voluntary basis. what if those most at risk are among those who decline to be tested? how does that protect anyone if these kids never learn if they are infected?
what i found odd is that the fifty kids who might have been exposed don't seem to have been told that they, specifically, need to be tested. unless i misunderstood, they appear to be offering testing to the entire student body, on a voluntary basis. what if those most at risk are among those who decline to be tested? how does that protect anyone if these kids never learn if they are infected?
well, the main ways HIV is transmitted is through unprotected sex and swapping needles from drug use. so hopefully, the kids who engaged in these dangerous behaviors will get themselves tested. I have a feeling we may find out that this may the type of school where unprotected sex and drug use is common and so a very large population of students may be at risk. again, not to make light of a serious situation, but this really does sound like a massive group orgy and the HIV+ student was involved. I can't think of any other way how so many kids could be at risk!
well, the main ways HIV is transmitted is through unprotected sex and swapping needles from drug use. so hopefully, the kids who engaged in these dangerous behaviors will get themselves tested. I have a feeling we may find out that this may the type of school where unprotected sex and drug use is common and so a very large population of students may be at risk. again, not to make light of a serious situation, but this really does sound like a massive group orgy and the HIV+ student was involved. I can't think of any other way how so many kids could be at risk!
Or, this may be a throwback to the days in the 80s when people were afraid to even look at an HIV infected person and went berserk. Maybe the principal still thinks that.
I do not know exactly what is going on with this incident, nor do I believe we will "uncover" the truth anytime soon. I do believe the best thing to do is educate our OWN children about the risks involved with risky behavior. Teens think that it can "only" happen to someone else. I am confused as to why, some are BLAMING the school system for the kids involved.
The 1 in 4 girls statistic did come out awhile ago and I MADE my son read the articles on it. It was strange that it wasn't about boys.
I am lost to why you think that the school system should be the ones testing the students. Did it happen on school grounds? Why wouldn't the parents be the ones testing THEIR children if they felt their child was exposed and in danger. It could be a big scare tactic. You never know. It is very sad all around.
Also, Teaching abstinence or teaching about birth control use is one thing; but teaching and practicing it are TWO different things.
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