Replies

How does the average kid get aids? How could a parent not know if her child has aids? Children go for physicals. Wouldn't a doctor inform a parent if her child has aids?

I think that it would be a very rare thing for a child to have aids and the child and his parents not know it. In fact, I would think that the incidence would be so miniscule that you couldn't waste time worrying about it. You can't worry about every little thing in this world. If you did, you would be paralyzed -- you'd never leave your house.

Now, of course, if the parents know that their child has aids and permits him to play contact sports, couldn't they be held liable if their child infected another child? A prostitute is held liable if she knowingly infects a john with aids. Anyone could be held liable if the knowingly infect their partner with aids.

if the parents know that their child has aids and permits him to play contact sports, couldn't they be held liable if their child infected another child?

Well, to me, that leads to this question: Why does the school district allow it, if the school district knows? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know the answer. I would guess it has to do with a claim of discrimination, if the child was not allowed to play.

But, in response to your claim that this must be only a tiny percentage of kids - not so. We were thinking this nurse was talking about maybe one or two kids, but her response was an emphatic "You would be surprised how many kids have it - in this district, which is not an unusual district." I think she said it is in the high school age group where HIV rates are rising fastest. So - the youngest kids are getting it, and according to the nurse, black female teens have the highest rate of increase.

And, yes, I agree there is risk in everything - but I also think it is a fact we live in a different type of world now, in many ways. This is yet another major change.

BTW, it is not unusual at for a kid in a fight to spit at another kid -- and if the saliva lands on an open would, well, another risk in this new world. Spitting didn't always involve the potential of a life-long fatal illness. Years ago, spitting was just spitting. But, not any more.