Billboard on Sunset Blvd: No kisses for Hershey

Photo: Brian Edwards

The billboard is part of a boycott of Hershey candy to protest the refusal of a boarding school with ties to the company to admit a teenager because he is HIV-positive.

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania sued the school in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia last year, contending that the school violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in denying admission to the boy, whose name has not been made public.

Lawyers for the group say the boy is an honor roll student who controls the HIV with medication and poses no health threat to the other students. A person can have the virus that causes AIDS but not have the disease.

Ronda Goldfein, attorney for the AIDS Law Project, said she is not involved with the boycott effort but the protests have been a morale booster for the boy and his mother.

"For a 14-year-old to hear that he's danger, he's a threat, that has really been hard for him," Goldfein said.