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ov. 1, Online

On World AIDS day, Dec. 1, a child whose father has HIV was forced to give up her dream of enrolling in an elementary school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, next year because the school canceled her seat after learning of her father’s status.

Fajar Jasmin, the HIV-positive father and an environmental activist, said on Thursday that he had received a text message from an SD Don Bosco I elementary school board member saying that the school and the foundation had agreed to cancel his daughter’s seat in the school.

“With a heavy heart, we have to cancel our decision to accept Imi as an SD Don Bosco student because other parents objected to Imi’s presence,” the message says, referring to Fajar’s daughter.

Your comments:

This is not fair. How was a child whose parents had HIV banned from school. What a shame your school will not be diminished in popularity because of this!

Ali

Directors and management of the Don Bosco School, I request you ask yourselves: “What would Jesus have done in this case?” and be honest about the answer. You should be deeply ashamed of yourselves.

Tami Koestomo

No father wants his children to contract the syndrome.

Tun Hargia Ankhar

Most importantly, who’s going to the school, the daughter or the father? If the daughter had been admitted, I assume that’s because her grades were good enough.

Why would the father’s health matter? This is neither a religious nor moral issue. It’s plain, simple, bigotry.

If the father disclosed that he’s an ustad (Islamic religious teacher) would that be reason to cancel the admission of his daughter to a Catholic school?

If he said that he has an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands, would that matter? If he said that he had dengue two years ago, would that matter?

It’s just ridiculous for anything but the father’s ability to pay for the school fees to affect the admission of the daughter.

And these “other parents”, why should they know who the parents of their children’s friends are? And I think it’s against most privacy laws to disclose that information to other parents. I’m sure they didn’t tell the other parents that Fajar didn’t put sugar in his coffee.

This whole thing seems to be the result of one bigoted school official who probably washed himself seven times with seven kinds of citrus fruits at seven waterfalls following his meeting with the HIV+ person.

Lu

This school does not warrant the right to carry the name of Don Bosco, his mission and vision and philosophy. The school board should be disbanded and replaced with a board that honors the name of Don Bosco.

Don Bosco or Salesian schools are dedicated to young people in an educational and formative environment.

According to promoters of this philosophy, the school is a house, church, playground and school where students find a new way of life, and prepare for their future as good citizens of their country, while being faithful to their own religion.

Henry Manoe

If this is a Catholic School — Don Bosoco — and it sounds like it to me — this attitude and behavior of the school, including the parent body, is totally contrary to church teachings.

The Archbishop should intervene and remind them of Catholic social justice teaching.

Also, the school community should avail themselves of some sound teachings and information about HIV/Aids awareness. They are obviously not only acting unjustly, but ignorantly.

As a Catholic myself, this situation appalls me. It is NOT in conformity with the gospels. This is not the way Catholics should behave.

Phillip Turnbull

Close the school totally. It is not acceptable!

Rahadi Widodo

It is ignorance, pure ignorance. Being HIV positive is not a death sentence anymore. However cancer is without any cure whatsoever.

A similar case happened in the US where the AIDS Law Project has sued the school on behalf of the teenager who is HIV positive for unwarranted discrimination and denying his admission to a boarding school in Pennsylvania.

TF