Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 19, 1993                   TAG: 9312190021
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEESBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SUPERVISORS CALL PRINCIPAL A SCROOGE

Two days earlier, county supervisors passed a resolution criticizing the school's principal for urging the newspaper staff to avoid naming the religious holiday in its December issue.

"It's an embarrassment and an outrage," said Supervisor Steve Whitener, who drafted the resolution and, like other supervisors, criticized school administrators for supporting the move by Edward Starzenski, principal at Loudoun County High School.

Starzenski recently told staff members of the Loudoun Raider to keep the newspaper "as secular as possible." The move was an attempt to avoid a controversy similar to one that occurred last spring, when several county school officials, including Starzenski, were accused in a lawsuit of promoting prayer at graduation ceremonies.

The suit, which is still being litigated, accuses the officials of violating the constitutional separation of church and state by encouraging student-led prayers.

Starzenski declined to comment on the supervisors' decision when reached at his office Friday.

Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick said Starzenski met with the newspaper's staff this week and said he had not intended to ban certain words from the paper, as the paper's staff believed.

After an earlier meeting with Starzenski, students canceled or rewrote three stories to delete specific references to Christmas.

"All he did was caution the students to be inclusive, that there were several holidays being celebrated," Hatrick said.

But supervisors stood by the language in their resolution and their criticism of school officials.

"Instead of trying to cover it up, they should apologize," Whitener said. "The fact is that it happened and it shouldn't have."

"I really don't like prior restraint of any form," said Board of Supervisors Chairman George Barton. "The school administration is a little behind the times with what's politically correct and what's not."

Starzenski would not comment on his discussion with the students.

Although several School Board members agreed with supervisors that Starzenski may have overreacted to the lawsuit, they criticized the supervisors for getting involved in a school matter.