Prep School Teacher Forces Students to Write Obscenities : Van Nuys: Stratford’s principal apologizes for action meant to find vandals who scrawled threats.

About 40 students at the private Stratford Preparatory School in Van Nuys were forced to write repeated samples of four-letter words for a teacher trying to find out who painted obscene threats against another teacher on school walls, school officials said Tuesday.

The acting principal of the school apologized Tuesday to parents outraged by the Friday action and promised it would never happen again.

“I do not approve of having a teacher force students to write profanities,” said acting Principal John Altounji, saying he was caught off-guard when science and physical education teacher Vic Harding ordered the students to write obscene phrases for him to examine.

Harding said his purpose was not so much to identify the handwriting as to frighten students into naming the culprit by making them think that was his motive.

Threats against English teacher Laurie Hickey were discovered March 24 painted in white letters across a row of school lockers and on a student mural of a seascape. “Hicky’s dead,” said one message.

Additional threats that included obscenity were scratched into the front of a campus refrigerator and the teacher’s car, which had been parked at her apartment near the school, police and school administrators said.

Hickey, 25, who is in her first year of teaching, said she has taken a leave of absence from her job and moved out of her apartment because of the fear she said the graffiti instilled in her.

Police, who have made no arrests in the case, are treating the vandalism as a hate crime, Los Angeles Police Lt. Richard Blankenship said. He said investigators suspect it was probably the work of a student.

Administrators said that they have experienced no other such incidents since the 48-student school opened three years ago, offering “a safe environment in which children could learn with very specialized instruction,” admissions administrator Leslie Gerber said. The school, which is owned by a Japanese businessman who runs another school in Japan, has classes for grades seven through 12, and costs $4,500 to $5,500 a year.

It is scheduled to close in June for unspecified reasons, said a school employee who declined to be identified.

Harding said he was informed of a possible suspect by a student on Thursday afternoon. He said he hoped that others who knew about the vandalism would come forward if they believed he was taking handwriting samples as evidence.

“I used it as a scare tactic to try to bring people forward who would clinch the case,” Harding said. He said he did not discuss his plans with police or the school’s administration.

When the students were called together at 10 a.m. Friday, Altounji said, he expected no more than a lecture to impress upon the students the seriousness of the vandalism. He said he was too amazed to stop Harding when the teacher told students to get out paper and pens and take dictation.

“He told us to write each and every single one of the profanities,” said Neda Broumand, a 16-year-old sophomore. “He dictated it several times. He told us to write it the way we would write it with a pen on a wall.”

Included in the writing samples, which students were required to sign, were the obscenities as well as the phrases, “Kill, Kill, Kill” and “I will kill you,” said Aaron Pruner, a 15-year-old sophomore.

About half the students were then released from the room.

Harding said that he then questioned about 12 of the students about the vandalism. He said that he collected information and turned it over to police Monday morning.

Some students said Tuesday that they were offended by having to write the words and angered by the feeling that they had been accused of the crime.

“I felt pretty upset by the fact that we had to do exactly the same thing as the person who did that,” said Aaron Millar, a 13-year-old seventh-grader.

Harlan Hobbs, a 16-year-old sophomore, said he didn’t believe such tactics helped police. “This teacher Harding is on a wild rampage trying to solve the mystery by himself,” Hobbs said. “He sort of victimized other students while doing it.”

Several parents said they believe Harding’s tests violated the children’s rights. Paula Pruner said she would be checking with other private schools about the possibility of transferring her son, Aaron, partly in response to the Friday incident.

“I just don’t feel that it was handled right,” she said. “I was very upset.”

Legal authorities said it was not immediately clear whether the school violated any laws by ordering students to submit handwriting samples.

Leonard G. Ratner, professor of law emeritus at USC, said the incident might possibly “suggest an impairment of privacy with regard to the innocent” students under state law.

Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said he was unsure if the school violated any laws but thought school officials made an “error in judgment” by playing detective instead of leaving the matter to police.

Other parents, however, said they thought the handwriting drill was valid if it helped catch the vandal.

“I wasn’t upset because I thought they needed to know who” painted the threats, said Jelica Mandich, whose son is in seventh grade at the school. “For me, it was OK even though my kids do not use such false language.”

Hickey said she believed her colleagues were just trying to help her.

She said she blames school administrators for not suspending a suspected student and added that she may never return to teaching at the campus.

“It’s kind of embarrassing they had to rewrite what was already so disturbing,” Hickey said. “But, on the other hand, to be a kid in L.A. anyway, you have to be mature enough to deal with something like this.”