Student Assembly

Re “Student Assembly No Picnic for Teachers,” May 31.

It is inconceivable that Beckford Elementary Principal Patricia Cox, not to mention teachers Cathy Cybulski and Denise Green, could be so insensitive as to choose the format for their fund-raising celebration. Today homeless parents and their children are going hungry. They do not have enough to eat. Yet at Beckford Elementary, kindergarten and first-grade students are taught to waste food, “exhorted” by emcee Steve Scheper to do so and urged on by shouts of “throw the whole bucket on them.”

According to The Times report, “as the near-pandemonium died down and Beckford’s 420 students prepared to return to class, a kindergartner surveyed the mess she had just helped to make and giggled, ‘It’s silly.’ ” No, it is not silly. It is disgusting. Principal Cox and teachers Cybulski and Green owe their students an apology. They sent the wrong message to 5- and 6-year-old minds. They should have taught: Don’t waste food while children are going hungry. And one might add, just why did the editors of the Valley Edition think this was such a cute story? What ever happened to editorial judgment?

ROBERT W. GUENTHER

Encino

* I am appalled that such a display is encouraged by school authorities and reported by your newspaper. Perhaps concern with those less fortunate than ourselves has become passe, but in my estimation, it is still important children learn that food, even if plentifully available, should be respected and not taken for granted, abused or used in a frivolous manner. Even if all the foods used in this instance were surplus or otherwise unfit for human consumption, many might not know this or make the distinction (especially younger children).

I can appreciate the teachers wanting to reward their students after the candy drive accomplishment, but couldn’t they have thought of a way that would not have sent such an irresponsible message--perhaps shaving cream pies in the face, water dunking or water balloon fights?

MARY MARGARET McGUIRE

Palmdale

* Kudos to teachers Cybulski and Green for introducing their young charges to good old American waste, adult-condoned vandalism and the ever-clever food fight. Where did these two earn their teaching credential, “Animal House”?

BOB MILLS

Studio City