The Region - News from Oct. 10, 1985

Rejecting the recommendation of federal health officials, the San Diego city school board defeated a proposal that would have allowed most students and employees with AIDS to remain in school. Three of the five trustees voted against the plan, in spite of last-minute testimony from specialists in pediatrics and acquired immune deficiency syndrome from the UC San Diego Medical School. The trustees said the fatal disease seems insufficiently understood to justify allowing victims in the schools. “I am not willing to risk the whole for the right of 1, 2, or 10 individuals,” Trustee Kay Davis said. “ . . . I’m not willing at this point to chance it.” The vote left the district with no policy at all. There are no reported cases of AIDS in the 113,000-student system. The board asked the staff to return in several weeks with an alternative proposal.