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'Boat Boy' Elian Is Now School Boy Again

Elian Gonzalez, Cuba's most famous boy, stood in a school courtyard on Friday, one child among 900 schoolmates watching a clown, participating in a mime exercise and yawning in the early morning heat.

Holding hands with four other friends, bag on shoulder, and unfazed by a small group of journalists Cuban authorities let cover the event, Elian looked happy and at ease as he rejoined classmates and teachers at a special first day ceremony.

The tiny survivor of shipwreck and the world's most publicized custody battle is getting on with important tasks of life: reading, writing and arithmetic.

And as Elian's class trooped in one classroom door, the media - represented by 20 quiet journalists, not the hordes that pursued the boy in Miami at the height of the custody battle - filed out another door to get on with their own life and work.

Earlier, reporters, cameramen and photographers caught a long look at Elian from about 50 feet away as he participated in the year-opening ceremony traditional at Cuban schools. Dressed like the others in a school uniform of red, white and blue, he was just one of 2 million Cuban students returning to classes.

"My name is Elian," the 6-year-old piped up when the teacher asked all 28 kids in his second-grade class to introduce themselves. There was no applause, no commentary, until every child has said his or her name - and then they all applauded themselves.

There were few tearful scenes at the flag-decked school. Parents went up to a balcony to observe the traditional opening-day ceremony while the kids chatted calmly among themselves in the patio below that doubles as a basketball court.

Elian came to the Marcelo Salado school in the coastal city of Cardenas, about 90 miles east of Havana, accompanied by his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. His grandmothers, stepmother and stepbrother also came along.

A clown called "Plumerin" (which means "Feather Duster") entertained the kids, as did a teacher who asked them to mime an imaginary voyage of exploration. To shouts of "Viva Cuba!" and "Viva our undefeated Commander in Chief!" the kids responded "Viva!"

Elian laughed, applauded and sang along during the show at the newly-painted, refurbished and re-equipped school in the heart of his run-down hometown.

Along with the other children, Elian sang the national anthem, saluted the Cuban flag, and repeated the Pioneers' daily pledge: "Pioneers for communism, we will be like 'Che'!"

Workmen this week spruced up the Marcelo Salado school, named after a revolutionary youth leader, putting in new toilets and replacing bricks in the building. The school will have water coolers, TV sets and videocassette recorders in every other classroom - a wealth of equipment found in some, but not all, Cuban grade schools.

``The school has been prepared especially, for Elian and for all of us, who deserve such a pretty school,' said teacher Geovanna Landrean, 26.

The first day of classes is traditionally lighter than the average four- to five-hour school day. Children meet their teachers, notebooks are handed out and a wreath is placed in honor of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti. A bronze bas-relief of Marti decorates most schools here.

The school's director, Maribel Reyes, welcomed students to a new year of classes. Then a little girl sang a song that had become familiar here during the Elian custody battle: "Let the children sing, let them sing with love."

Last Thanksgiving, Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 other Cubans had drowned when their boat sank during an attempt to reach the United States.

He was returned to his father after U.S. authorities seized him from the home of his Miami relatives during a nighttime raid in April. But during the months-long case Elian became a flashpoint for U.S.-Cuban relations, inspiring a long court battle in the United States and huge, almost daily government-organized rallies and marches in Cuba.

Elian has lived away from the public eye, reportedly at a Havana boarding school, since he returned to Cuba on June 28. His first day at school was his first public appearance in months.

Snippets of video broadcast on state-run television over the summer have showed Elian playing with friends, riding in a small boat with his father and swimming among dolphins near an undisclosed beach location. He was also shown making up schoolwork, practicing cursive letters.

Elian's schoolmates have been encouraged to treat the shipwreck survivor just like anybody else -- but many couldn't resist staring at the boy whose face they had seen for seven months on posters and T- shirts and media across the island.

"This was better" than similar ceremonies in past years, said Yanila Carreno, a sixth-grader at the school. The struggle for Elian has already become the stuff of school-yard legend - and has made this tiny corner of Cuba media-savvy, she said.

"I've already been on television," she said, referring to a trip by schoolmates to Havana's international airport, "when we went to get Elian."

However, the Cuban government also has made it clear that reporters won't be allowed to swarm the boy after school begins in earnest Monday.

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