Principal’s Fate Uncertain After Dispute With Superintendent

The future of Inglewood High School Principal Lawrence Freeman, whose tough leadership style has drawn both praise and criticism, remains uncertain this week after a confrontation between Freeman and incoming Supt. George McKenna.

Administrators have told Freeman to remain home while they investigate an incident at Inglewood High School last week during which Freeman and McKenna reportedly exchanged angry words. Angry parents and students packed Monday’s Inglewood Unified School District board meeting to protest the treatment of Freeman.

In response to rumors circulating in Inglewood that Freeman was fired or suspended, board members issued a terse statement at Monday’s meeting saying “no adverse personnel action” has been taken against Freeman. Freeman said, however, he was told at a meeting Monday with McKenna and acting Supt. Lynn Covin to remain at home while administrators investigate.

“I’ve worked too hard to have to go through this,” Freeman said in a telephone interview Tuesday, complaining that he was not given grounds for the decision to keep him at home. “I feel it’s unfair that they’re disciplining me for having an argument with another administrator. They took all due process away from me. I haven’t received anything in writing.”

Board members, board attorney Artis Grant and McKenna said they cannot discuss Freeman’s status because it is a personnel matter.

In an interview last Friday, McKenna limited his comments to denying the charge by Freeman and others that McKenna has plans to remove Freeman because he disapproves of Freeman’s methods, which critics have labeled dictatorial.

McKenna also denied that he told Freeman during last week’s incident that Freeman was “no longer principal of Inglewood High School,” an allegation made by Freeman and a district employee who sides with Freeman and who said he witnessed the argument.

The dispute involving Freeman and McKenna, two high-profile inner-city educators who have made names for themselves with tough but differing styles, comes even before McKenna is scheduled to officially assume his post Saturday.

It represents the first potential crisis for McKenna, the nationally known former principal of Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, who accepted the Inglewood post Sept. 20 at a reception attended by board members, employees and the community. He was welcomed as a man who would turn around a district plagued by fiscal problems and political conflict.

McKenna’s reception at his first school board meeting Monday was decidely cooler. Parents, employees and students praised Freeman for keeping Inglewood High School clean and free from gang activity and rowdiness and for establishing high expectations for students and teachers alike. They demanded an explanation for his removal.

“That school was a jungle before he came and it’ll be a jungle if he leaves,” said parent Marva Couzar.

Freeman supporters--including former board member William (Tony) Draper--said they believe McKenna intends to remove Freeman because he disapproves of Freeman’s style and suggested that last week’s confrontation was a “set-up.”

A group of emotional students gathered around McKenna after the meeting to ask him about the Freeman issue. He spoke with them for several minutes, explaining he could not discuss a personnel issue, then went into executive session with board members.

“They won’t tell us anything,” said student Tovi Scruggs, who said students gathered 355 petition signatures in support of Freeman Monday. “We miss him.”

Like Freeman, McKenna has been described as a workaholic who built his reputation at Washington High School by stressing discipline, parent involvement and hard work by students and teachers. Like Freeman, he had run-ins with faculty as a result.

But in previous interviews with The Times and other publications, McKenna has been critical of authoritarian approaches, such as the style of New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark, who gained fame for patrolling his school with a baseball bat and bullhorn. Both Clark and McKenna have been praised for their efforts by President Reagan, but McKenna has said Clark’s methods are “unconscionable.”

Some Inglewood employees and parents who support Freeman say they believe McKenna disapproves of Freeman because he sees Freeman as similar to New Jersey’s Clark.

Called ‘Screamin’ Freeman’

Freeman, a former Army officer, is known by the sometimes affectionate, sometimes disparaging nickname “Screamin’ Freeman” and has been known to walk the grounds of his school blowing a whistle and lecturing students who violate strict dress and behavior rules.

But McKenna rejected speculation that he is out to get Freeman, and said he has “no preconceived agenda or impression . . . other than what I’ve read in the newspapers.”

Freeman said he has not been at work since last Thursday, when he and Inglewood Adult School Principal John Rabun argued about overcrowding causing a fire hazard in adult school classes that were being held at Inglewood High School.

Freeman said the argument occurred after he announced on the high school’s public address system that teachers with more than 35 students in a class should ask excess students to leave. Freeman also said overcrowding and litter left by adult school classes have created problems for day school staff.

Ottis Hendricks, an adult school teacher who said he was conducting class at the time, said he was shocked at the way Freeman interrupted classes. “He sounded like a raving madman,” Hendricks said. “The class was so upset some students wanted to go home. . . . I think he acted unprofessionally.”

According to Freeman and the accounts of other employees, McKenna and security officers arrived at the school after Freeman and Rabun clashed over Freeman’s attempt to remove excess students. Freeman said he called the district office in an attempt to reach acting Supt. Covin at home and ask her to mediate.

Freeman said he was surprised that McKenna, who officially becomes superintendent on Saturday, responded. Freeman also said he was surprised when McKenna showed up at the adult school office rather than at Freeman’s office in another building, and was surprised when McKenna allegedly ordered him to wait outside that office.

Freeman said that during the ensuing argument McKenna angrily told him he was no longer principal.

Freeman, 66, has been the focal point of controversy before. He traded lawsuits in 1986 with angry teachers who called him a dictator and said he had created a prison-like atmosphere at the school. Some students agreed with the teachers, while others and their parents rose to his defense.