Indiana University Kokomo faculty to talk about life of Ryan White

KOKOMO, Ind. - Two former Indiana University faculty members who've researched a school district's decision to bar an Indiana teenager with AIDS from attending classes during the AIDS scare of the 1980s are holding a public seminar on their findings.

Retired IU-Kokomo history professor Allen Safianow tells the Kokomo Tribune that he and former IU-Kokomo public health nurse Judy Lausch will talk Tuesday evening about how Ryan White's story continues to resonate.

School officials barred the 13-year-old boy from Western Middle School near Kokomo in 1984 in a case that attracted international headlines. The state Department of Education eventually ruled that White could attend school and he moved to a high school in Hamilton County.

White died in 1990 at age 18. The program will be at IU-Kokomo's Kelley Student Center.