A case involving the rights of children infected with the HI virus to attend nursery school will be heard in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.
According to the Aids Law Project (ALP), the Buccluech Montessori Nursery School in Woodmead declined to admit a two-and-a-half-year-old girl because she was HIV-positive. The girl’s foster mother disclosed her daughter’s HIV status to the head of the nursery school to ensure that when the girl felt ill, she received the appropriate treatment and care from her teachers, the ALP said in a statement on Tuesday.
The mother had also hoped that the disclosure would ensure that the girl was treated with compassion. However the school declined to admit the child on the basis that it was not equipped to deal with children living with HIV, the ALP said.
In the interim, teachers at the school received training in managing HIV, but the child was once again rejected after the training was completed.
The ALP said it was particularly concerned that although the training had been completed, the school continued to allege that HIV was easily spread through scratching and biting.
”It is clear from the defence of the school that it has consistently failed to engage with critical aspects of HIV and, given the magnitude of the epidemic in the country, this seems not only irresponsible but negligent,” it said.
The case will look at the constitutional right of the child not to be discriminated against on the basis of her HIV status.
It would also deal with the failure of the school to take adequate steps to accommodate HIV infected children in its classrooms, according to the ALP. The school has said it was inappropriate to comment before the start of the case.
The hearing will start around 10am. – Sapa