AIDS Victim Will Feel Right at Home in Classroom

--AIDS victim Ryan White and his classmates will learn how to dissect a grasshopper, but this time the seventh-grade science teacher will be instructing the class from the teen-ager’s home in Kokomo, Ind. Ryan, who has been attending classes from his bedroom via a telephone-computer hookup, will get first-hand instruction on dissecting the insect today while his classmates watch from the computer screen. “I think it was a nice gesture,” said Ryan’s mother, Jeanne White, of the change in classroom instruction. The 14-year-old attended classes for the first time Feb. 21 since contracting AIDS in December, 1984, during his treatment for hemophilia. Ryan’s school admittance was approved after a lengthy battle. But a temporary injunction again barring Ryan from classes was approved shortly after he started back to school. The injunction was requested by parents of Ryan’s potential classmates. A hearing to determine whether Ryan should be permanently barred from school has been rescheduled for April 2.

--Depending upon whose eyes are beholding it, a sculpture by John Daniel called “Night Winds”--showing two stylized trees joined by a crossbar--is either a work of art or a nightmare. The three-ton steel sculpture, black and covered with irregular, multicolored shapes, was toppled last week by workers wielding cutting torches. The removal of the sculpture, erected five years ago on a busy corner on the Longview, Tex., campus of Kilgore College, has touched off a lively artistic debate and some student unrest. Katherine Blackson, a former City Council member, opened a debate in the Longview Morning Journal, calling the work a “perfect example of a communist policy to erect ugly and meaningless objects instead of artworks of beauty and inspiration.” College executive Wade Kirk said he made the decision to remove the sculpture, but declined to say why, other than, “I don’t really want to get into this.” Blackson has suggested that the sculpture be replaced by a water fountain, or a bed of flowers in the shape of the state of Texas. “That’s undisputable beauty,” she said.

--Miami police say they made a mistake when they originally reported that they had canceled a speeding ticket issued to “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson, and the television cop will have to pay a $102.50 fine after all. Officer Randall Kugler said he stopped a Mercedes-Benz on Interstate 95 early last week. “He was going very fast,” said Kugler, and the driver introduced himself as Don Johnson of “Miami Vice” before Kugler wrote out the ticket. “He was definitely disgruntled,” Kugler said.