June 19, 2006—I was profiled in POZ last year while I was still in junior high school. Some people saw the article and soon a lot of the kids knew I had HIV. I decided that I didn’t care and that I would keep doing stuff for POZ, but I was glad to go to high school this year at Belmont Preparatory High School in the Bronx, where only a couple of my good friends knew I was positive. But somehow other people found out. And people started making fun of me. If someone says something smart to me, I fight back. I was having a lot of outbursts. They would say “Raven has the monster,” and I was like, “It’s not a monster. Do I look like a monster?”

Earlier this year a kid threatened me and the school gave me papers so I could transfer. But then the school I wanted to go to called up my guidance counselor and the counselor told the school that I had a behavior problem. I was fighting a lot, but she knew it was about HIV and didn’t tell them that. They didn’t accept me. Then last week, one boy yelled out that I had HIV in the lunchroom. Everyone came up to me and told me this boy was giving out my business. I started crying and couldn’t take it anymore. The principal wouldn’t do anything to help. I called my mom and she called a press conference in front of the school for the next morning, which was also my 16th birthday.

I was nervous and thought everyone would turn their back on me. But I wanted to do it. I wanted to educate people. I wanted people to know that it’s not my fault; that I was born with this. I don’t even know what it’s like to be negative. My friends told me to do it and said I would see who my real friends are.

There were about 70 people there with signs. Cars would stop and look. And then I ended up in the Daily News. I didn’t go to school after the conference and I didn’t even want to go outside and have everyone’s eyes on me. But all my friends and my family told me I had to go outside because it was my birthday and I had to go out and have fun. My godmother surprised me with tickets to go see the Lion King. It was really nice. One of the guys from the show ran down the aisle next to me and said, “Happy Birthday.” I don’t know how he even knew.

Thursday was the last day of school and I went. All my friends came up and hugged me and I found that my real friends were all the friends I’d had all along. People who I didn’t even know were walking up to me and telling me that I was brave and that I was their role model. One of my friends said she heard this boy saying that he couldn’t believe I had HIV and that he had let me kiss him on the cheek once. My friend yelled at him and said, “You’re dumb. That’s not how you get HIV.”

There are a lot of ignorant people at my school. We learn a little about HIV in health class, the difference between HIV and AIDS and that you can get it from sex and should use condoms. But they need to have more. They should act out for us what you should do and how you should act if you find out a kid is positive. I think the kids will talk about HIV more now, especially my friends. They keep telling me to come back next year. But I want to go to a different school. And after that I want to go to college and become a criminal lawyer.