ACLU Retracts Call for Romer’s Removal

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has retracted an impromptu comment by its legal director calling for the removal of Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer.

But ACLU Executive Director Ramona Ripston’s letter to the superintendent this week fell far short of an apology. She merely said that Mark Rosenbaum’s remarks were not authorized by the ACLU’s board.

Ripston added that she was concerned about reports that Romer had shown “expressions of hostility” toward the ACLU and requested a meeting to establish a better relationship. The letter suggests that both sides in the dispute had gone too far.

“I understand that in the rough-and-tumble political world in which we must all sometimes operate, we occasionally make comments we later regret,” she said.

Romer was unavailable Friday for comment, and a spokeswoman would not comment on whether he would accept the invitation to meet.

The letter came several days after Rosenbaum launched a verbal assault on Romer during a news conference. On Tuesday, he accused the Los Angeles Unified School District of numerous violations of a 5-year-old court order requiring it to improve services for disabled students.

Romer, who has just begun his second year as superintendent, has criticized the order, saying it is overly burdensome and impairs the district’s ability to improve services to special education students.

Rosenbaum played a video of a speech last year in which Romer compared the decree to “a new form of worship” and said it was dragging the district down as the Lilliputians did Gulliver in “Gulliver’s Travels.”

Rosenbaum also sent a letter of clarification this week to the district’s general counsel.

“I realize that in my zeal to express our genuine concern that the school district has failed to live up to the terms of the . . . consent decree I overstepped my bounds in suggesting that Supt. Romer should be removed,” he said.