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My guess is that the HIV-infected student slept with multiple people (but not anywhere close to all 50) within the last few years, and that s/he is aware that they have slept with other people since then -- but probably doesn't know everyone that each of those people has slept with. Testing everyone makes more sense than just testing select people -- with that many people involved, you have no idea who's being honest about who they've slept with and who they haven't. Plus, my guess is that it's illegal for the health department to force someone to disclose their HIV status -- to the health department, I mean; obviously it's illegal not to disclose your status to somebody you're exposing the virus to. (Also, I'm guessing that plenty of kids who attend the school might want to take the test, regardless of how many "at-risk" students they've associated with, just for their own peace of mind.)
A lot of the anecdotes in that article rubbed me the wrong way. I hope this will be a good chance for the city to throw some lessons on tolerance into the HIV/AIDS unit of their sex ed classes. Seriously, breaking up with your girlfriend because she goes to a school where she might have been exposed to the virus? I know he's in high school and all, and his logic skills aren't fully formed yet . . . but almost any time you sleep with somebody who's slept with somebody else, you might be exposed to the virus. If you can't handle that idea, you're probably too young to be having sex.
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