Mayor Criticizes Comments by L.A. School Board Chief

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 sympathizing with Latino parents who want to oust a Valley school principal because he isn’t Latino.

Riordan called the comments by board President Victoria Castro, made shortly after the principal said he was beaten unconscious by anti-white assailants, “very inflammatory and indiscreet.”

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

Castro accused the mayor--a political rival--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 said.

The mayor’s comment, at a national meeting of law enforcement officials in Universal City, came shortly after Los Angeles County supervisors offered a $25,000 reward in the attack.

It was the first time Riordan has spoken out on the uproar that has followed the report to police by Norman Bernstein, principal of Burton Street Elementary School in Panorama City, that he was jumped by two men, at least one of them a Latino, at the school Feb. 1.

The men beat him and held a sharp object to his throat, Bernstein told police, who 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, has been embroiled for months in a conflict with a group of parents who have been petitioning the district to remove Bernstein.

The group’s 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 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.”

Riordan said he thought the description of the school’s atmosphere was blown “out of proportion.”

To which Castro replied:

“What a disappointment that the mayor of the second largest city of the nation would minimize the situation at Burton to a childlike 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, which the school board passed Tuesday.

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this story.