Principal Had Sought Aid in Confronting Bias

A Panorama City elementary school principal who said he was beaten unconscious by anti-white assailants had asked the Anti-Defamation League last month for help in dealing with discrimination he was experiencing at the school, a lawyer for the league said Wednesday.

The attack brought reactions from all corners Wednesday, as Latino parents protested that they were not connected to it, even questioning Principal Norman Bernstein’s account, and others described racial tensions that apparently led to his appeal to the league.

Police have said they are investigating the attack as a hate crime, perhaps motivated by discontent over Bernstein’s efforts to scale back bilingual education at the predominantly Latino campus.

But parents at Burton Street Elementary School--including some who have called for the principal’s dismissal, an administrator said--met at the school Wednesday and protested that they were not behind the incident.

“There is no relation between the crime and bilingual education at the school,” said one of the parents, who asked not to be identified. “We are upset that people are blaming the parents.”

“We want the truth,” said Lorena Aguilar. “Don’t just say Hispanics are involved. Don’t just fault us.”

Bernstein told police that as he stepped from his car at school Monday morning, two Latino men punched him, splitting the skin above his eyebrow, held a sharp object to his throat and left him unconscious in the car.

Bernstein told detectives that one of the men said, “We don’t want you here, white principal.”

For the past year, a group of parents has been calling for Bernstein’s removal because, among other reasons, he doesn’t speak Spanish. Tensions at the 750-student school rose after passage of Proposition 227, requiring that most students be taught in English, not Spanish, according to some teachers and parents.

As hostility between Bernstein and some parents grew, he called on Los Angeles Unified School District administrators for help, Eli Brent, president of the principals union, said Wednesday.

Instead, Bernstein “was told that he might be receiving a letter indicating dismissal or demotion” on the grounds that the blame might lie with his administration, Brent said.

In January, Bernstein called the Anti-Defamation League, saying he faced growing anti-white sentiment at the school, according to Sue Stengel, Western states counsel for the organization.

He wanted “advice regarding what was potentially a discriminatory situation he felt he was experiencing,” she said.

The league sent him complaint forms, but he has not returned them, Stengel said.

Bernstein, recuperating at home, declined to discuss his job status. He said he expected to return to work in “a couple weeks.”

Some of the parents at Wednesday’s meeting, who included longtime critics of Bernstein, challenged his account of the beating. They said it was strange that the first call he made after the attack was to his office, not 911 for emergency or police help. They also expressed doubts that a Latino would call him “white principal” and not gringo or guero, more common Spanish slurs for whites.

Police said they are investigating the incident as Bernstein reported it.

The Anti-Defamation League joined school union leaders Wednesday in criticizing comments made Tuesday by Los Angeles school board President Victoria Castro. After the attack, she expressed sympathy for the parents who wanted to remove Bernstein.

“We can’t understand how anyone within our school family can make statements that gives validity to mob action,” said Brent, head of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles.

Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, said: “You have to look beyond the simple question, does or doesn’t the administrator speak the language of the parents? There have been many great principals in East L.A. who didn’t speak a lick of Spanish.”

Castro said Wednesday that she opposes violence under any circumstances, but she reiterated that it is reasonable for Latino parents to want a Latino principal.

She joined board member Julie Korenstein in asking the school board to approve a $25,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Bernstein’s assailants. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he would ask the Board of Supervisors to approve an additional $25,000. Both motions are expected to be voted on Tuesday.

Times staff writers Jeffrey Gettleman and Louis Sahagun and correspondent Diane Wedner contributed to this story.