This is an article written to the local newspaper,upon the controversial death of a student with AIDS. Title:Infected With Disease By: A. Teacher.. I am angry. But, I am not angry at the school system for not having told us about this child with AIDS, as the privacy act does not allow this information to be available to me (Brown). I am not angry with the community for letting this fact get out, resulting in paranoia, fear, confusion, or the loathing of this child; their participation in the community or as a student in this school (Sadker, pg. 368). I am not angry with this child for having this disease, as they were educated by their doctor and counselors and took their own precautions so as not to spread AIDS. When any children has cut themselves we took the obvious precautions, assuming that no child is AIDS or disease free (AIDS, pg.4). As teachers, we educated the children in hopes that a new attitude would be shared among students and parents, not putting fears to rest, but to diminish prejudices against HIV, the virus, and AIDS; the disease (AIDS, pg.1). I’m not mad at the parents who feared who their own children’s health and safety. In the classroom we protected the welfare of other students, and ourselves but we may have failed to protect the patient; treating the child with disgust, rather than the disease; like Lepers (Sadker, pg. 368). I’m not mad at the students that feared AIDS, as they may someday despise the disease enough to find a cure. I am not mad at the students who reached out to this child, regardless of misconceptions that could have poisoned their way of thinking, leaving the negative to over rule friendship or the needs of all children. Observing these children was the true education. However, I am angry with the parents of this child for political reasons, or ignorance or fear or perhaps thinking they had their child’s best interests in mind; giving them a semi-normal childhood experience, put their immune deficient child in school for whatever reason, resulting in the pneumonia and a vascular-type cancer that killed that child today (Brown). During an intensely painful and lonely ordeal, as their health failed, this child was shown that the disease was unkind. We did not have to show them that the world was equally unfeeling. Leading a “normal” life was never an option, as much as the parents tried to keep it that way (Brown). This child was like any other child, except now, this child is dead. Therefore, I am mad at the disease. And I am mad at the ignorance. And I am proposing a new program be put into effect. As a nation we spend much money on sick care, but not health care. We can no longer ignore or isolate disease, any disease. If we can accept HIV and AIDS as a fact of life; we can live with taking precautions. Everyday we encounter those with contagious diseases but because those people have not been singled out, we treat them no differently. Perhaps it is time we look at ourselves, and not others; living more safely, and with better morals. “I don’t want an AIDS child in the classroom with my child, “ many have said (Sadker, pg368). Your child becomes exposed to colds, flu, perhaps even tuberculosis or meningitis. But because you didn’t know about these germs, or the severity of these contagions, you felt at ease. Do you not think there are people at your own place of employment, or your church who have AIDS? Perhaps your own relative has it. What if it was your child? Would you still cling to your opinions as you lean over their deathbed? Or do you comfort that person and direct their life in a more positive way? How do you want others to treat your child if they should ever become infected? This particular child wrote the following; “I thought that since I was probably not going to live long, that I should have a choice in where I attend school. At first when no one knew about my disease, I felt like maybe I wasn’t sick. It wasn’t real to me. Being sick was a separate issue from going to school. But when people started to talk about it, I was embarrassed and angry. I didn’t want to go to school. I couldn’t concentrate. I wanted a normal life; but kids kept saying things like ‘why did I bother to go to school if I wasn’t even going to grow up’. I have an AIDS counselor but I didn’t understand much about my disease. I knew what to tell people if they asked me if they could catch AIDS. But I didn’t know how to tell them what I was feeling. I didn’t want people to be afraid of me” (Brown). Before their last day, I sat down with this child (yes, I sat with this child, perhaps now I have the disease!), and we went over a plan to help their classmates long after they have gone. We came up with the following. Raising Public Awareness “Even though people talk about AIDS at school, the news makes it sound really scary and then kids don’t know what to think. The adults confuse us when they tell us how we can get sick, but then they don’t even listen to their own words.” Feedback “Don’t just tell us about AIDS, listen to us. Sometimes we don’t know how to ask a specific question. We are too young to deal with this alone. We need to feel more confident.” Participation “Everyone should get involved. The risks and the precautions have to become real to people, other wise they will just be afraid, even if they say they aren’t.” Teaching about AIDS, coping, views, prejudices, continuously updated information can be shared effectively with the tools we as teachers and parents all ready posses; Poetry, writing, stories telling as ways to share feelings openly. Pictures, photos, and art by our children or others to help cope with feelings of sickness, death, and even that of life. Clubs, games, workshops, discussion groups to bring all people together; promotes interaction, questions, attitude, knowledge and behavior. Dance, role play, drama, song, music, puppets; all ways of living with the disease, whether you have it or you are there to give support to them, or to use as a way to help you better understand the disease (Colling, pg. 8-9). Asking local doctors and nurses to field trip our classrooms to educate our children (Brown). All these ideas can be taken to a developmentally appropriate level for each group of children involved. Other ideas include the children to brainstorm, hold parent teacher conferences, public demonstrations, events, newspaper articles, TV, radio interviews; (Colling, pg.8) or living each day as if it were their own last day cannot be a bad thing, as it ripples, causing us to be more conscious of other important issues like cancer, handicaps, even the deterioration of our environment. Living in a community inflicted with disease can only heighten our personal sense of responsibility to better our safety net (Brown). Taking these precautions should be as common and practiced everyday, such as washing hands or covering ones mouth when coughing. It should be part of life’s routine. And infected children will receive the proper treatment; that being of acceptance. They will have the self-confidence to be responsible as society works in co-operation to beat this disease and the spread of it (Colling, pg. 10). Our programs allowed children to learn the basic precautions they would need to avoid being infected with HIV, at this time (AIDS, pg. 4). In years to come we may find the disease spreading in other ways. We may find ourselves facing other diseases, equally as destructive to our race. If we start now, to go back to the basics of every day health care, we may prevent illness. We cannot always control disease. But there is yet another disease that we can control; that of fear, discrimination, and ignorance. This year, through meeting this “AIDS child”, I was not the teacher, but the student.