Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - February 13, 1986
Dr. Alan J. Alder, chief medical officer for Howard County, made the ruling after examining the teen-ager, Ryan White.
Officials of Western Middle School banned Ryan from his seventh-grade classes more than a year ago after he was diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome, an incurable disease that renders the body's immune system incapable of fighting disease. Ryan, a hemophiliac, contracted the disease from tainted blood products, his mother said.
The decision on the educational placement of Ryan was assigned to Dr. Adler last week by the Indiana Board of Special Education Appeals, which had heard a plea from the boy's family for his readmission to school. At a hearing in Lafayette, the panel ordered the school to request a health certificate from Dr. Adler and to admit Ryan contingent on Dr. Adler's recommendation.
No Ground for 'Keeping Him Out'
The certificate was mandated by the panel to comply with a state law relating to communicable diseases in public schools.
James O. Smith, superintendent of the Western School Corporation, said after hearing Dr. Adler's opinion: "I don't see any way we can keep Ryan from attending school. That doesn't mean he ought to be there but I don't think we have any grounds for keeping him out."
Charles Vaughn, the lawyer for the Whites, said, "I feel like the long battle is over."
Ryan's mother, Jeanne, said Dr. Adler gave her son a regular examination but "looked more into how Ryan was emotionally and how it would be for him to go back to school."
Dr. Adler said Ryan could go back to classes Friday, but he suggested that Ryan stay home for about a week because of a flu epidemic in the area.
School officials said Tuesday that they would hold county health officials responsible for any liability if Dr. Adler recommended that Ryan be admitted to classes.
"I've made this decision acting as the county heath officer," Dr. Adler said today. "I assume I can be sued like anyone else. But I'm willing to take that responsiblilty."
David Day, the lawyer for the school, said that it had become "pretty apparent" in the last few days that Dr. Adler was leaning toward putting Ryan back in school, adding: "I don't suppose anything you are going to do is going to satisfy everybody. But this is the first time you've had a doctor who has said that it poses no threat and that he will take responsibility if it does."
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