Financial Aid(s)

Okay, issue fans, let me run this one by you… and let me know what you think the answer is. Here are the facts:

1. A charitably-funded boarding school provides a superior education in a home-like environment for gifted students of limited financial means from pre-K though high school graduation (and has fulfilled this mission since 1909). The online description of the school notes: The excellent education … starts with dedicated teachers who care about each student’s learning experience. Classes are small – an average of 15 students for each teacher, so each student gets individual attention and support. Students live in large, comfortable homes with 10 to 14 students in their own age group. A pair of married houseparents oversee each home, providing the structure that children need and taking an active interest in their development.

2. The posted criteria for students states: “Children considered for admission must meet the following criteria:

· Come from a family of low income, limited resources, and social need

· Be from the ages of 4-15 years old

· Have the ability to learn

· Be free of serious emotional and behavioral problems that disrupt life in the classroom or the home

· Be able to take part in the School’s program

· Be born in the United States

• Be born in the United States

3. The School currently has more than 1,800 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade. Students come predominantly from PA (80%) and the mid-Atlantic region, and represent more than 34 states in the U.S. Approximately 43% of the students have siblings who also attend MHS. The ethnicity of the students is: 44% Caucasian; 27% African American; 15% Hispanic; 1% Asian; 13% Other (2008-09 statistics).

4. A gifted “honors student,” 13-year-old (whom we will call “Sammy”) was accepted in the program, but upon discovering a particular trait which the school determined to be too risky for the other students, his application was rejected for that reason.

5. The students live in close proximity, and age thirteen is often the age of nascent sexuality and occasional experimentation.

6. The peculiar trait that resulted in this young man’s rejection? He is infected with the HIV virus.

The school, Pennsylvania’s esteemed Milton Hershey School (endowed by that famous chocolate family and pictured above), openly admits the reason for the rejection, and was even willing to submit the matter to the courts, since it was more than ambivalent and was hoping for a judicial response that could set their record and responsibilities straight. Sammy and his family beat them to the punch and filed the lawsuit first. The school issued an explanation for their actions, and here is a salient excerpt from their posted reasoning: Milton Hershey School is not a day school, where students go home to their family at the end of the day. Instead, this is a unique home-like environment, a pre-K -12 residential school where children live in homes with 10-12 other students on our campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others. The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well being of others… That is why, after careful review and analysis, we determined we could not put our children at risk.

The other side? “Ronda Goldfein from the AIDS Law Project is representing the boy and his mother in the federal discrimination lawsuit… ‘If you have a school that’s open to the public, then it’s open to the public,’ Goldfein said. ‘If you have a student that has a particular need and requests assistance, then you accommodate. You don’t simply say we don’t like you, we don’t like your diagnosis, you can’t come here.’… ‘It makes me angry, like really, really angry because they don't understand how great he is,’ the boy's mother said.” MSNBC.com, December 1^st.

Two decisions I would like you to make: 1. You’re the judge, what is your determination? Any caveats? 2. You’re a parent with a child of the same age that has been admitted to Hershey. What you decide for your own child?

I’m Peter Dekom, and every day we face tough choices… but it wasn’t Sammy who engaged in any affirmative behavior that resulted in his infection.