Separate and Unequal: Students with HIV/AIDS and Mathematics Education

Abstract

Adolescents and youth represent a substantial number of individuals living with HIV/AIDS (hereinafter HIV) in the United States. Infected youth and young adults aged 13-29 (n = 100,724) made up 10% of all U.S. individuals living with HIV at the end of 2014 (Center for Disease Control [CDC], 2016). This same age group comprises 42% of all new HIV diagnoses, with young Black and Hispanic/Latin@/x people suffering at disproportionate rates (CDC, 2016). Despite the rising number of students with HIV attending U.S. schools, equitable educational policies and practices for these individuals are nearly non-existent. Students with HIV remain consigned to the ideologies and practices of segregation. In this commentary, the author takes sides, furthering the issues of equity for marginalized populations articulated in Martin's (2015) and Meyer's (2016) prior JUME commentaries. Furthermore, she raises two issues. First she calls to question the authenticity of position statements and documents regarding equity that generalize their expectations to "all students." Such statements are ambivalent to each and every student and do not explicitly reference students with HIV and critical illness more broadly. To leave "all" undefined in this way creates a blindspot (e.g., Winkle-Wagner, Hinderliter Ortloff, & Hunter, 2009), a view obstructed from the center. She also builds on Martin's and Meyer's commentaries to address how NCTM's (2014b) Principles to Actions (and other policy statements/documents aimed toward equity ) might be reimagined to bring the marginalized to the center and to ensure equitable practices for students with HIV (and other critical illnesses ), taking specific aim at the essential elements of access and equity, curriculum, and professionalism. (Written with Craig J. Cullen, Amanda L. Cullen, and Richelle Joe).