Jordyn Johnson
Mr. Laughlin
American History
29 January 2023
Ryan White
Ryan White was a kid who was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 13. He was diagnosed with AIDS on December 17, 1984. Due to Ryan having AIDS he was often bullied at school and was not even allowed to attend school. Many people had a great deal of fear with AIDS because at that time little was known about the illness.
Ryan had a disease called hemophilia. Hemophilia is a blood clotting disorder, which means when a person is injured their blood will not clot like it should. Ryan received injections of Factor VIII to help his blood clot. It was discovered that the injections he got were tainted and that caused him to get AIDS.
In 1985, Ryan was banned from entering school because he had AIDS. During this time AIDS was a new disease that people did not understand. The only thing people really understood was that anyone who had AIDS would die. The decision to not allow Ryan to attend school was made by the Superintendent of schools James O. Smith. There were new guidelines that said a child with AIDS could go to school with AIDS as long as they did not feel sick. Ryan wanted to attend school, he was very smart and he was afraid he would fall behind, and have to repeat a grade if he missed so much school. Ryan’s Mom then decided to take legal action for Ryan to be able to attend school
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It was not a fun experience for him though. He received bullying from other kids, along with cruel comments. Kids would call him gay or think he had done something bad to get AIDS. Some people even told him this was God's punishment to