NATION : AIDS-Stricken Girl Enters School

TAMPA, Fla. — A mentally disabled, AIDS-stricken 7-year-old stepped into a classroom for the first time in her life today, with bows in her hair, a knapsack on her back and the cheers of supporters surrounding her.

Her adoptive mother, Rosa Martinez, who fought a 2 1/2-year court battle against school officials who feared a health risk and had required that the girl be confined to a glass isolation booth, called today the most important day in her daughter Eliana’s life.

Supporters cheered as mother and daughter walked into the one-story, red-brick Manhattan Exceptional Center, where 201 students are enrolled. Eliana’s teacher said many pupils hugged the girl when she came into their classroom.

Martinez is a nurse who adopted Eliana as an infant in her native Puerto Rico. Eliana was stricken with AIDS after receiving transfusions of tainted blood shortly after her premature birth.