Ryan White
| Ryan White | |
|---|---|
White in 1989
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| Born |
Ryan Wayne White December 6, 1971 Kokomo, Indiana, United States |
| Died | April 8, 1990 (aged 18) Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Cause of death | Complications from AIDS |
| Occupation | Student |
| Parent(s) | Jeanne Elaine Hale (mother) Hubert Wayne White (father) |
| Website | ryanwhite |
| Timeline of legal battle 1985–86 school year |
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|---|---|
| June 30 | Superintendent James O. Smith denies White admittance to school. |
| Aug. 26 | First day of school. White is allowed to listen to his classes via telephone. |
| Oct. 2 | School principal upholds decision to prohibit White. |
| Nov. 25 | Indiana Department of Education rules that White must be admitted. |
| Dec. 17 | The school board votes 7–0 to appeal the ruling. |
| Feb. 6 | Indiana DOE again rules White can attend school, after inspection by Howard County health officers. |
| Feb. 13 | Howard County health officer determines White is fit for school. |
| Feb. 19 | Howard County judge refuses to issue an injunction against White. |
| Feb. 21 | White returns to school. A different judge grants a restraining order that afternoon to again bar him. |
| Mar. 2 | White's opponents hold an auction in the school gymnasium to raise money to keep White out. |
| April 9 | White's case is presented in Circuit Court. |
| April 10 | Circuit Court Judge Jack R. O'Neill dissolves restraining order. White returns to school. |
| July 18 | Indiana Court of Appeals declines to hear any further appeals. |
Ryan Wayne White (December 6, 1971 – April 8, 1990) was an American teenager from Kokomo, Indiana, who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States after failing to be re-admitted to school following an AIDS diagnosis. As a hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment (Factor VIII) and, when diagnosed in December 1984, was given six months to live. Doctors said he posed no risk to other students, but AIDS was poorly understood by the general public at the time. When White tried to return to school, many parents and teachers in Howard County rallied against his attendance due to concerns of the disease spreading through bodily fluid transfer. Western School was actually located in Russiaville outside of Kokomo and was not part of the local Kokomo school system. A lengthy administrative appeal process ensued, and news of the conflict turned White into a popular celebrity and advocate for AIDS research and public education. Surprising his doctors, White lived five years longer than predicted but died in April 1990, one month before his high school graduation.
Before White, AIDS was a disease stigmatized as an illness impacting the gay community, because it was first diagnosed among gay men. That perception shifted as White and other prominent HIV-infected people such as Magic Johnson, Arthur Ashe and the Ray brothers appeared in the media to advocate for more AIDS research and public education to address the epidemic. The U.S. Congress passed a major piece of AIDS legislation, the Ryan White CARE Act, shortly after White's death. The Act has been reauthorized twice; Ryan White Programs are the largest provider of services for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
Ryan White was born at St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Kokomo, Indiana, to Jeanne Elaine Hale and Hubert Wayne White. When he was circumcised, the bleeding would not stop. When he was three days old, doctors diagnosed him with severe hemophilia A, a hereditary blood coagulation disorder associated with the X chromosome, which causes even minor injuries to result in severe bleeding. For treatment, he received weekly infusions of Factor VIII, a blood product created from pooled plasma of non-hemophiliacs, an increasingly common treatment for hemophiliacs at the time.
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