Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Monday, Oct. 4, 1999
Richard Carelli, Associated Press Writer
The justices, without comment, left intact rulings that said Michael Montalvo's participation in a rough-and-tumble karate school would pose too much of a threat to the health and safety of other students.
Michael's father, Luciano, had sued the karate school, saying its refusal to let his son participate in group classes violated a federal anti-discrimination law, the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Michael was 12 when in 1997 he applied to take karate lessons at U.S.A. Bushidokan, a karate school in Colonial Heights, Va., run by James Radcliffe II.
After learning that Michael had Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Radcliffe refused to let him participate in group classes. His offer to give the boy private lessons was rejected.
A federal judge threw out the Montalvos' lawsuit last year, ruling that Michael's infectious HIV-virus posed a direct threat to other students and that the school had reasonably tried to accommodate his disability.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the trial judge's ruling in February.
"The type of activity offered at U.S.A. Bushidokan emphasized sparring, attack drills and continuous body interaction with the result that participants frequently sustained bloody injuries, such as nose bleeds, cuts inside the mouth and external abrasions," the appeals court said.
"In the context of this hard-style karate, the risk of a student's transmitting HIV to another student was significant," the appeals court said.
Michael was born with the virus. His mother and sister have died from AIDS.
In the appeal acted on today, lawyers for the Montalvos said the decision to exclude Michael from the karate lessons had been made "without the benefit of objective medical opinion," and that medical testimony offered by the school "completely failed to objectively assess the level of risk."
The case is Montalvo vs. Radcliffe, 98-1831.
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