Shared snorkel results in federal race discrimination lawsuit

Jet, August 17, 1998

A Black boy and his mother are suing a day-school program in Wheaton, IL, saying its organizers pressured them into having the Black boy tested for HIV and strep throat after the mother of a White boy with whom he shared a snorkel two years earlier while they played at a public pool learned of the incident.

The federal lawsuit accuses the Outreach Community Ministries of racial discrimination and says the group's officials broke state law by releasing the HIV test results to the other mother. The suit also names Glen Ellyn Clinic and Dr. Donald White, who performed the tests at the clinic. It does not name the White boy's mother.

Roger Leishman, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of the woman-identified as Mary Doe, said his client, a single mother of two sons, agreed to the tests because she feared she would lose her much-needed day care.

Her son, now 11 and identified in the suit as Jimmy Doe, said the tests made him feel "dirty," according to the lawsuit.

"If Jimmy was a White kid, we wouldn't be talking about this today," Leishman said. "Everyone knows you can't get AIDS from a snorkel, but when you're talking about a Black kid, everyone is willing to forget what they know."

Chris Ellerman, executive director of Outreach Community Ministries, said he brought this matter to the attention of the Black mother because the White mother was threatening to sue her to force the tests.

"This case is about fear of AIDS," Ellerman said. "When you're afraid of AIDS, you're going to hang on to the thinnest thread."

Ellerman said he "strongly recommended" that the Black mother talk to a lawyer, but he never pressured her to have the tests done.