T

he management of the Don Bosco private elementary school in North Jakarta said on Friday that the decision to deny the daughter of HIV sufferer Fajar Jasmin Sugandhi entrance was “not discrimination”.

The school’s head of academic section, Paul Yosopandoyo, said after a meeting with Fajar and his wife, Leonnie F. Merinsca, on Friday that the couple and the media had taken the wrong perception of the school’s decision, which was sent to the parents through a text message.

“We just wanted the parents to submit their daughter’s medical records,” he said. “The request [for health records] would have been made of any student who we suspected of carrying a disease, not just her.”

Should the parents submit their daughter’s HIV test results, the school would have secured her seat, Paul added. The school would also have welcomed her if the test confirmed her negative HIV status.

“However, if the test results were positive, we could not accept her and [that decision] is not discriminatory. It is just that people living with HIV need special treatment. I’m afraid that the school could not provide it. That’s the whole point,” he said.

Paul admitted that canceling her enrolment through a text message was not polite. “The cancellation should have been delivered to the parents through an official letter rather than a short message. We apologize for this,” he said.

Paul said that the school was considering publicly declaring an official apology in national newspapers as Fajar had demanded. “Even without his request, we are willing to do that,” he said.

During Friday’s meeting, Fajar demanded that the school board issue a formal apology to his daughter. “I demand that the school board members officially apologize via five national media outlets to my daughter, to me as her parent and to all people with HIV, and to hold a press conference to convey their conclusion on the matter,” said Fajar, who refused to submit his daughter’s medical records as requested because of the confidentiality of health information.

He added that the cancellation was issued to accommodate other parents’ objections that their children would be in the same school as the daughter of someone with HIV.

A mother of a Don Bosco student who requested anonymity said that parents were fully aware that HIV was not easily transmitted from daily interactions.

However, according to her, the parents possibly felt insecure [knowing] their children were interacting with Fajar’s daughter even if she was not HIV positive.

“I know that HIV is not highly contagious, but we just feel insecure,” she told The Jakarta Post, adding that she wished to keep her son away from people living with HIV. “Well, it is still a dangerous virus anyway.”

The mother said that what the school had done was merely “preventive action”.

Fajar said that during the two-hour meeting the school board did not present any parent who objected his daughter’s enrollment.

Fajar said that he did not want to continue the argument because he believed that the school had “different understandings about the concept of discrimination”. Fajar also said that he would not struggle for his daughter’s seat in the school.

However, he would pursue his case. “This issue is not about me and my daughter any more. It’s about human rights,” he said. (lfr)