NATION : AIDS-Stricken Girl Enters School
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.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
