This latest from Change.org Link also leads to other worthy petitions, including one that asks Newt Gingrich not to force poor children into janitorial duties.
Tim (not his real name) is a regular 13-year-old kid. He's on the honor roll. He plays sports. You'd never know to look at him how brave he is -- because you'd never know that Tim is living with HIV.But the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania knew about Tim's HIV status. And they denied him admission because of it.
Although discrimination against people living with HIV is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Milton Hersey School doesn't deny its reasoning. The school said in a statement, "we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others" -- even though science and society have known for decades that HIV is not highly contagious.
Lawrence Stallworth understands how tough it is to be a teen living with HIV -- Lawrence is 20, and he found out he was HIV-positive when he was 17. Lawrence teamed up with the organization Advocates for Youth to start a petition on Change.org demanding that the Milton Hershey School admit Tim. Please sign Lawrence's petition today.
This is 2011. We know that fears of HIV+ people are unfounded. Every time someone gets discriminated against, it's a shame on out society, and when a kid gets denied opportunity that shame is doubled.
Please sign.
I highly recommend signing up for Change.org petitions. Every signature is a signal that there is a voter/taxpayer/customer paying attention. Every participant in compassion is a guarantor of its success.