The State - News from Oct. 8, 1986

A 4-year-old Atascadero boy suffering from AIDS who was forced out of school after biting another student will remain exiled from class until at least next semester. Atascadero Unified School District officials supported a recommendation of the placement committee that Ryan Thomas continue to be tutored at home, said Paul Anderson, director of curriculum. The boy, who contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome from a blood transfusion, was taken out of the Santa Rosa Road Elementary School after biting another student in a classroom fight. “In effect, they said that Ryan would be out of school with home instruction until the end of the first semester, at which time he could be reassessed to determine whether or not he would be ready to come back,” Anderson said. The boy’s father, Robin Thomas, said the district gave in to public pressure about the incurable disease.