Could Students With HIV Be Barred From North Carolina Community Colleges?

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the case of the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges, it may just be that the road to discrimination is paved that way, too.

Tens of thousands of students traverse through the North Carolina community college system in a given year, and administrators are keen on making sure these students are protected. Or so that's the talking point behind the system's consideration of new policy that will evaluate a student's health as a piece of the admissions criteria.

"We need to protect our students," Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College, told WRAL.com this week. "This may open the door for the possibility of a health background check."

That means that in addition to grades and extra-curricular activities, students may now be evaluated on their health conditions. And while on the surface that may sound OK, the vagueness of the policy under consideration by the North Carolina community college system seems to allow for leeway to ban students who have what administrators dub as "communicable diseases." Could that mean that students living with HIV, for instance, might be denied admittance into their North Carolina community college of choice?

At least one lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is raising a few red flags, telling WRAL.com that the policy under consideration is too broad, and could lead to misuse and abuse.

"The way it's written right now, it seems very broad and vague. There are no real standards included in it, so it seems like it could be used in a very arbitrary way," said Sarah Preston, who serves as the legislative counsel for the North Carolina chapter of the ACLU. Then she acknowledges that the community college system might be crossing that fine line between appropriate information and privacy. "It raises some red flags as far as privacy and how they're getting information."

Red flags, indeed. Send a message to the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges, letting them know that if they're going to consider barring students from enrolling in classes for health reasons, they need to ensure that their policy doesn't unjustly discriminate against any populations, and takes into account legitimate privacy concerns.

The new admissions proposal under consideration by the State Board of Community Colleges can be seen here (pdf). In very legal text, here's the part that has some activists concerned that this policy could be used and/or abused.

"Boards of trustees may adopt policies refusing admission to any applicant if it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the applicant or other individuals," the new policy reads. "When making a health and safety determination, colleges may refuse admission to an applicant when there is an articulable, imminent, and significant threat to the applicant or other individuals."

It's not hard to see the theory or even the good intentions behind this type of policy. But sadly, in a world where HIV-positive people are arrested because of their status, and in some cases charged with bioterrorism because of their status, or where HIV-positive folks have their status released to the public by administrators, it's not hard to see a policy like this being manipulated by an overzealous or ignorant administrator. One of the comments on the WRAL.com piece spells it out pretty succinctly.

"Anyone who has seen the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report will recognize this. Let us all embrace a future of petty bureaucrats serving as all-seeing Pre-Cogs that protect us from ourselves," writes Qwerty2787.

Do colleges have a right to peer into the health history of students? Not even the University of North Carolina system considers health "threats" an impediment to admission. Does it really make sense for the community college system in the state to do so, given the perceived road to abuse that such a policy could take us toward?

The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges operates under the mantra of "Hope, Opportunity, Jobs." Let that be a mantra that applies to everyone.

Photo credit: North Carolina Community Colleges