Superintendent: Child was always allowed to attend class

News Courier (Athens, AL)

Jan. 23--Limestone County Schools Superintendent Tom Sisk said recent stories in the state and national press about Alex Hoover, a terminally ill East Limestone teen, suggest the boy was not allowed in a classroom because of his condition, but this was never the case.

"It's because his mother refused to send him," Sisk said Friday. "We didn't say he couldn't come to school."

Alex was diagnosed with a terminal heart defect and holds an advance directive which includes a do not resuscitate order. When he entered hospice care, Rene Hoover began discussions with the school system about Alex's care. Though under hospice care, the teen can still go outside the home when he feels up to it, his mother said. She and Alex's medical team decided it would be good for him to continue going to school when he's able as a therapy for his autism.

Technically, Alex's advance directive requires he should not be revived if he enters sudden cardiac arrest. Alabama does not officially recognize advance directives for anyone under the age of 19 and Sisk said the district would be required by law to attempt to revive Alex if he were to have an incident at school. Because of this, Rene Hoover chose to keep Alex at home, where she could direct her son's care, the superintendent added.

Earlier in the week, Rene Hoover talked with media outlets, including The News Courier, announcing she and the school district made "a lot of compromises" for Alex to start going back to class this year.

Sisk, as an educator, is bound by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, preventing him from discussing specifics about any student's health care and education plan. As such, he said his "hands are tied" when it comes to talking about most of the situation, but he wanted the opportunity to respond to the story.