Abstract
A male hemophiliac, who had contracted AIDS through a contaminated blood product, enrolled as a senior student in an Illinois public high school. The disruptive reactions that had emerged in similar situations were averted. The 13 processes that were primarily responsible for the successful integration of the student into the school system are delineated, illustrated, documented, and interpreted. Four methods—inside participant observation, analysis of documents, interviews, and survey questionnaires—were used to investigate the situation. The findings have implications for three areas: (a) the use of multiple methods in researching large social systems, (b) the sociological understanding of “overt ambiguous awareness contexts,” and (c) policies for the management of schoolchildren with AIDS. This study appears to be the first to intensively examine the reaction of an educational community to a student with AIDS while the reaction was actually emerging. Other studies have been retrospective.
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