Children of Poz Mom Return to School in Pea Ridge, Ark.

Pea Ridge, Ark., was named both for the mountain ridge near which it was founded and for the turkey peas on which early settlers subsisted.

With a population of just 4,794 at last count, the generally low-key town was pushed into the national spotlight in September 2013, when three schoolchildren were subjected to misinformation and old-fashioned fear about HIV and the way it is contracted. When their school discovered that the children's birth mother—the three siblings live with a foster-care family—was HIV positive, the superintendent suspended the students until they could prove that they were not HIV positive.

The Disability Rights Center of Arkansas (DRC), located in Little Rock, immediately objected. "It is very unusual from my perspective in this day and age to have this type of reaction," says Executive Director Tom Masseau. "It's just ridiculous. I could see if it was back in the 1980s with Ryan White. And I get that there's still stigma. But we've moved past that, considerably."

After 10 days out of school, the siblings were allowed to return. But advocates remain disturbed and are working to ensure that such a reaction never recurs.

"I spoke to the commissioner of the state school board," says Kari Coffman, who is HIV positive and who advocates locally for people who are HIV positive. "I said I feel it's vital the superintendent and teachers and counselors be retaught and refreshed on HIV 101. Because this is a superintendent, who is supposed to be a master in the field of education, and he banned these students because he thought they could have HIV. He didn't know if they had it or not."

A letter to the foster family from Pea Ridge School District Superintendent Rick Neal cited a policy allowing schools to ban students with communicable diseases. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, however, has ruled that HIV—transmitted through unprotected sex, needles and syringes or during pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding—is no longer considered a communicable disease of public health significance. And the risk of contracting it through biting and scratching is considered negligible.

The school district also released a statement that alluded to the disabilities that two of the children have, whose symptoms can include biting or scratching behaviors: "This rare requirement is due to certain actions and behaviors that place students and staff at risk," the statement read.

The DRC urged against releasing the children's test results to the school district, stating that their release and the school's demand of negative HIV test results before the students could return to school were both violations of federal law. However, the chief attorney for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, in a letter to the DRC, cited a state code requiring the release of "'all known information' regarding the health and safety of a foster child to the child's school district."

On Sept. 17 the children were allowed back in school, with Neal informing the local newspaper that "the issue has now been resolved."

But advocates say it's not over.

"The whole issue still remains that we have two students with disabilities who are not receiving the educational supports or services to which they are entitled," says Masseau.

He complains that since being readmitted, two of the children now receive only a few hours a day of schooling. "Our next step is to ensure they're receiving an education and are not just pushed out of school," Masseau says.

A volunteer advocate, Bob Coffey, says, "We still have a lot of people who are ignorant about HIV transmission." He says that he sees similar discrimination against people with HIV in the area's nursing homes. "The goal is education," he says, "so these folks know about HIV and don't make these kinds of decisions. The judges need to know, nursing homes need to know, anyone in a position of authority over other people needs to know what HIV is and how it's contracted so they know how to handle situations and who to contact."

The damage is likely long-lasting for the children, Coffman explains.

"The names were sealed, but with it being such a small town, everybody knows who these poor kids are," she says. "They broke so many policies in Pea Ridge, one of them being the policy not to discriminate against children with disabilities. Every child has a right to attend school."

Sheila Simmons is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer and public relations expert.