AIDS: Panic in Arcadia

When Clifford Ray took sons Richard, 10, Robert, 9, and Randy, 8, to the first – day of classes in Arcadia, Fla., last week, half the 693 students at Memorial Elementary School were missing. The Ray boys, all hemophiliacs, have been exposed to the AIDS virus, and many children were kept home.

After Ray and his wife Louise informed the school board of their children’s condition last fall, the boys were barred from classes. The Rays sued, citing doctors who said the brothers posed no threat. Last month the school was ordered to readmit the boys.

Arcadia did not accept the decision quietly. After a week of demonstrations and death threats, the boys’ home was destroyed late Friday night by a fire of suspicious origin while the family was away. After that, Louise Ray said her family would leave the county. Said she: “I never thought it would go this far.”