Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Jordan sixth-grader back after health case settled
Palo Alto district retreats from transfer order with agreement to observe cross-infection rules

A Jordan Middle School student whose parents sued the Palo Alto school district to block his transfer over a health issue is back at the school this week under a legal settlement.

The parents of sixth-grader Colman Chadam and the school district agreed that Colman — who has a genetic mutation related to cystic fibrosis — could return to Jordan if protocols to avoid cross-infection among cystic-fibrosis patients are followed.

The district had argued that Colman needed to be transferred to Terman, where no other students are known to have cystic fibrosis, to avoid the risk of cross-infection with kids at Jordan who have cystic fibrosis.

The Chadams said Colman has never been clinically diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and that his genetic condition poses no threat of cross-infection to students with the disease.

The family and the school district reached agreement last week, and Colman, who had declined to enroll at Terman, was back at Jordan Monday.

"After careful consideration, which included further consultation with a medical expert, the students are attending the same school and the PAUSD is following the recommendation of implementing cystic-fibrosis cross-infection protocols," Associate Superintendent Charles Young said.

Neither the Chadams nor their lawyer, Stephen Jaffe, could be reached for comment.

— Chris Kenrick

Posted by Jordan Parent, a resident of the Evergreen Park neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm

1 of 25 Caucasians of Northern European descent is a carrier for CF. Undoubtedly many more Jordan MS students are CF carriers. It makes absolutely no sense to send this one to Terman.

Posted by Ducatigirl, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 11, 2012 at 6:09 pm

It does seem to attack Nordic people more often, though I have known one Italian and One Israeli who died of it.

Posted by editing?, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Nov 13, 2012 at 12:07 am

There was another thread, same content, linked to front page in the past days. That thread had quite a few comments. Maybe both threads can be merged, to reflect all comments?