College Will Pay Settlement and Revise Policies After Discrimination Against Students With HIV

The U.S. Attorney's Office has settled an investigation into the violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act by Gwinnett College, a for-profit institution located in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. An HIV positive female student claimed Gwinnett College banned her from the school's medical assistant program after she had finished a fourth of her studies because she "posed a safety risk to others."

The U.S. Attorney's aggreed with the student, who will now will receive $23,000 from Gwinnett College. The school has also promised to remove questions regarding HIV and AIDS from its applications and to revise its policies to prevent further discrimination against students with HIV or any other disability.

According to Alexis Stevens of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates issed a statement that "despite years of education regarding HIV and AIDS, many people still encounter discrimination based on the stigma of this disability. Our office will continue to devote resources to fight injustices for people with HIV."