Mayor, School Board’s Castro Exchange Barbs

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said Tuesday that the head of the school board should “go home and wash her mouth out with soap” for saying she sympathized with Latino parents who want to oust a Valley school principal because he is not a Latino, comments she made shortly after the principal said he was beaten unconscious by anti-white assailants.

Speaking shortly after Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday offered a $25,000 reward in the attack, Riordan called the comments by Victoria Castro “very inflammatory and indiscreet.”

Without mentioning Castro by name, Riordan said the statements had been made by a member of the school board who “should be ashamed. I think this individual has said too much. She should go home and wash her mouth out with soap.”

Castro, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board, fired back, accusing the mayor--a political opponent--of being childish.

“If I believed going home and washing my mouth would improve the situation [at the Valley school], I would do that,” she added.

At a national meeting of law enforcement officials from around the country at Universal City, Riordan spoke out for the first time on the uproar that followed the report to police by Norman Bernstein, principal of Burton Elementary School in Panorama City, that he was jumped by two men, at least one of them a Latino, as he arrived for work Feb. 1.

Riordan, speaking to reporters, called the assailants “two thugs.”

Bernstein told police the men beat him and held a sharp object to his throat, leaving him unconscious in his car. Authorities are investigating the report as a hate crime. Bernstein said one of the men said to him:

“We don’t want you here anymore, principal. Do you understand that, white principal?”

Bernstein and Burton Elementary--where 90% of the students are Latino--have been embroiled for months in a conflict with a group of parents who have been petitioning school authorities to remove him.

The group cites many grievances, including complaints that Bernstein does not speak Spanish and was unsympathetic to their unhappiness over cutbacks in bilingual education.

After the attack, Castro told a reporter last week:

“Yes, some parents [at the school] were seeking a Latino principal based on previous conflicts they had with the current principal.

“I do not think that is an unreasonable request. Any time there is a community that feels they are in a conflict and they are primarily Spanish-speaking, they’ll ask for a Spanish-speaking principal and preferably a Latino.”

The statement drew criticism earlier from representatives of the teachers’ and principals’ unions and from the Anti-Defamation League, which has been speaking out on behalf of Bernstein, who has been convalescing at his Burbank home since the attack.

Riordan said he thought the description of the atmosphere at the school had been blown “out of proportion.”

“A vast majority of parents, teachers and students love the principal,” Riordan said, appearing to agree with some teachers and parents at the school who have said the disgruntled parents were a small group.

Riordan has feuded with Castro and other board members for months, contending the board has not done enough to reform the district and allow the superintendent to try new programs. A year ago Riordan angered the school board members when he said, “They don’t have the mental equipment, the experience equipment, to run [the district] right.”

Castro said at the time she saw the mayor’s insult as a taint on the whole school board--”petty, insulting, name calling.”

Riordan signaled his dissatisfaction with Castro when she ran in 1997 for an Eastside L.A. seat in the Assembly by backing her rival, Gil Cedillo, who won. Riordan has in the past expressed unhappiness with the school board and is backing a slate of candidates for three seats on the board in April elections, targeting board members who have been Castro allies. Castro is not up for reelection.

Told of Riordan’s comments Tuesday, Castro replied:

“What a disappointment that the mayor of the second largest city of the nation would minimize the situation at Burton to a child-like comment. I would expect the mayor to offer a solution. We’re offering a reward, and he’s playing childhood games.”

Castro co-sponsored a resolution calling for a $25,000 reward for information leading to the assailants, which the school board passed Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors pledged an additional $25,000 reward.

County rewards are typically capped at $5,000, but supervisors agreed to draw additional money from their individual office funds.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Panorama City, contributed $9,000 and Supervisors Mike Antonovich, Gloria Molina and Don Knabe each pledged $5,000. Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke contributed $1,000.

The office of City Councilman Joel Wachs said he is drafting a motion calling on the city to offer a $25,000 reward, which would bring the total to $75,000. That motion may be introduced Friday, a Wachs aide said.

Meanwhile, six City Council members cited the beating in Panorama City in a motion calling for the city to support federal legislation to increase enforcement of hate-crime laws.

“The increase in the number of hate crimes has the potential to pose serious problems here as well as around the nation,” said the motion signed by council members Mike Hernandez, Cindy Miscikowski, Joel Wachs, Mike Feuer, Rita Walters and Laura Chick.

The federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act would provide additional funds for programs to fight hate crimes and would increase sentences for certain types of hate-crime activity.

At the school itself, city and school officials Tuesday appeared upbeat after a second day of talks involving administrators, staff members and some parents aimed at easing tensions.

“Bottom line is we want to get people to sit across the table from each other,” said Joe Hicks, executive director of the city’s Human Relations Commission.

“It was a good meeting,” said Assistant Supt. John Liechty, who supervises instruction in the San Fernando Valley. “We agreed to move forward aggressively.”

The parents--only six were allowed to attend--were not as optimistic. “We’re satisfied to a certain extent, but it’s going to take some time because of the resentment teachers feel [against] parents and the parents [resentment against teachers for saying] that this beating has to do with racial issues,” parent Letecia Robles said.

Days of Dialogue, a private group formed in 1995 to calm racial tensions in the city after the O.J. Simpson verdict, will organize a series of community-wide forums that will begin next week, Executive Director Lee Wallach said.

“If we can get these people to sit down to talk to each other and have a series of dialogues, that’s what will get people together,” he said.

“Our goal is to get them understanding each other, as opposed to seeking to be understood. The two are very different.”

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PATT MORRISON

Hate crimes give rise to rumors that hurt us whether true or not. B12