DPA
Phnom Penh - The foster parents of a seven-year-old Cambodian girl are considering legal action after a foreign-managed private school expelled the child for being HIV positive.
The Cambodian-owned, British-managed Footprints School in the capital, which bills itself as to international-standard and offering 'well trained, caring, professional staff,' expelled the girl within hours of becoming aware of her HIV status, the parents said.
Her Australian foster mother, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, said she believed Footprints had acted contrary to Ministry of Education anti-discrimination legislation but said she expected few repercussions against a wealthy private school.
'We just gave the school a list of her medications, but they looked them up and put two and two together,' she said.
'Her teacher asked some pointed questions and I didn't lie to him ... and within 24 hours everyone in the school seemed to know and she was out,' she said.
A woman who identified herself as the director of studies at Footprints said by telephone that the school did not have an HIV/AIDS policy in place and despite the girl's unblemished three months at the school prior to the discovery, she had to leave.
'We are worried about the rest of the children,' she said, acknowledging that the child's HIV status was behind the decision.
But there was also a more cynical reason behind the decision in the lucrative but under-regulated post-war Cambodian private school system, she admitted, citing public stigma surrounding the virus.
'We are a private school, and although we would try to keep information like this confidential, there is no guarantee it would not become public,' she said.
That could result in the school losing business as panicked parents withdrew their children, she said.
But UNAIDS Cambodian coordinator Tony Lisle said Friday it was a clear breech of the child's human rights, based on ignorance.
'There is no reason for her not to be at school. There is no evidence anywhere in the world that a child, even playing in a playground, can infect other children,' he said.
'The school should protect the child's confidentially and treat her exactly the same way they would any other student,' he said. 'There is no reason why this should happen to this or any other child.'
Cambodia has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the region.
The Cambodian-owned, British-managed Footprints School in the capital, which bills itself as to international-standard and offering 'well trained, caring, professional staff,' expelled the girl within hours of becoming aware of her HIV status, the parents said.
Her Australian foster mother, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, said she believed Footprints had acted contrary to Ministry of Education anti-discrimination legislation but said she expected few repercussions against a wealthy private school.
'We just gave the school a list of her medications, but they looked them up and put two and two together,' she said.
'Her teacher asked some pointed questions and I didn't lie to him ... and within 24 hours everyone in the school seemed to know and she was out,' she said.
A woman who identified herself as the director of studies at Footprints said by telephone that the school did not have an HIV/AIDS policy in place and despite the girl's unblemished three months at the school prior to the discovery, she had to leave.
'We are worried about the rest of the children,' she said, acknowledging that the child's HIV status was behind the decision.
But there was also a more cynical reason behind the decision in the lucrative but under-regulated post-war Cambodian private school system, she admitted, citing public stigma surrounding the virus.
'We are a private school, and although we would try to keep information like this confidential, there is no guarantee it would not become public,' she said.
That could result in the school losing business as panicked parents withdrew their children, she said.
But UNAIDS Cambodian coordinator Tony Lisle said Friday it was a clear breech of the child's human rights, based on ignorance.
'There is no reason for her not to be at school. There is no evidence anywhere in the world that a child, even playing in a playground, can infect other children,' he said.
'The school should protect the child's confidentially and treat her exactly the same way they would any other student,' he said. 'There is no reason why this should happen to this or any other child.'
Cambodia has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the region.
10 comments:
The Britian lady who run school is a good exmple one of Westerners who has ASIAN MENTAL capacity. And that is the reason she has left England to set up business in Cambodia.
is it legal to discriminate against hiv positive people in school in cambodia? it looks to me like some people still have the stigma about hiv/aids. i guess people in cambodia and the world for that matter need to be educated about hiv/aids in cambodia. i mean they need serious education on the method of transmission of hiv/aids in cambodia that one can't get hiv/aids from sharing a classroom, the laundry, etc... the diseases of more concern in cambodia should be tb, heps, etc, and not hiv/aids, especially in casual contacts. thank you.
2"32AM how about the kids getting in to a fight and were scrach each other can you read medical journal again?
Can the expert so sure about HIV?
GO tho special scholl and live other kids alone be responsible if you have problem!
For God sake, this girl is a Khmer just like many of us, a sufferer of HIV [it is not her choice but was transmitted by either of her parent who were also Khmer] and she is lucky to be cared and adopted as foster kid to the Australian lady.
Personally don't think that there is an anti-discrimination law in Cambodia. However, Kid with HIV shall not be discriminated and treated differently from othe kids.
Is it how Khmer want to treat each other because the person has HIV?
HIV would not transmit just because they touch each other, kiss each other, sit in the same classroom or breath the same air.
Teacher[s] and other[s] who broke the news shall be ashamed of themselves for exposing the poor girl medical condition to public.
Why people asked for privacy if they don't care about other privacy at all.
4:10 looks like you the one that need to be educated about HIV/AIDS. You quote "GO tho special scholl and live other kids alone be responsible if you have problem!" Let's switch the story around and pretend that this was your child. Would you be able to tell her every morning why she's not allowed to play or attend a regular school with other kids? Its easy to prejudge, until your significant others is affected. It's funny how the country amongst the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and unable to find a single curriculums at any school throughout Cambodia. This is one of the things about us Khmer; don't talk about or mention it and hope it'll go away one day. But the title Ignorance knows no bound, referred to you Mr. 4:10.
Schools are supposed to be one of the most noble of institutions. It is tragic that this 'foreign school' does not exhibit any noble ideals. The school is afraid of losing students. If the school cannot guarantee the confidentiality of its own student, then their professionalism comes to question. Are they really professional? This is very sad. I am a teacher too and I would never want to attack a fellow professional. However, this incident has put education in Cambodia in a bad light. It destroys what WE as teachers have been trying to do all our lives: ridding people of ignorance. This institution sees profit much, much, much more important than education. Of course you need profit to survive but the school should handle issues like this in a better way than that. I wonder if the school realize that they are destroying one life; the life of an innocent child. It is sad, very sad.
6:10AM wait until your children have to go to school with HIV kid and if they infected from a scratch with clase mate and than you explaned to your children of how brave and honorable you are to let them to expose to death!
Ignorance belive averything! Can one that can cause the broplem be sacrified or the rest of the population to do the sacrifying?
Will i think she should have stayed in school
The girl did not no she was adoptided
2:32you are right some one needs to do that. But who?
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