Children with AIDS are often poor and orphaned, further setting them apart from their peers. This further results in poor school performance and a deadly cycle of being labeled not only as "sick," but also as "stupid." Peer pressures such as these have a greatly detrimental affect on the future of such children, and could even result in much earlier illness and death than necessary. Not having much hope of any future at all, such children are seldom encouraged to try to perform at school. At the fundamental level, the problem is a lack of education for both the peers and authority figures who work with these...

& Prentice-Dunn, Steven (1996). Children's Perceptions of Peers with AIDS: Assessing the Impact of Contagion Information Perceived Similarity, and Illness Conceptualization. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Vol. 21. No 3. pp. 321-333 http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/21/3/321.pdf
Office for Civil Rights. (1991, July) Placement of School Children with Acquired Immune Dficiency Syndrome. U.S. Dept of Education. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq53e9.html