A 12-year-old boy named Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS, transmitted via contaminated blood products. A year later, White was denied entry to his school by the superintendent because parents complained he might infect their children. Many of these same parents pulled their children out of school when a court finally ordered that White be allowed back. Ryan and his mother would go on to become national advocates for people with AIDS. Although the media called him an innocent victim, he forcefully rejected that language. White was determined to dispel the implication that other people with AIDS were somehow guilty.