Students Are Forced to Copy Obscene Graffiti : Vandalism: Parents are outraged that teacher made their children copy words and threats. The instructor says he was trying to find the culprit.

About 40 students at the private Stratford Preparatory School in Van Nuys were forced to write repeated samples of four-letter obscenities for a teacher trying to identify the vandal who painted threats against another teacher on a school wall, school officials said Tuesday.

The acting principal of the school apologized Tuesday to parents outraged by the action Friday and promised it would never happen again.

“I do not approve of having a teacher force students to write profanities,” said acting Principal John Altounji, saying he was caught off guard when Vic Harding, a science and physical education teacher, ordered the students to write obscene phrases for him to examine.

Harding said his purpose was not so much to identify the handwriting as to frighten students into naming the culprit by making them think that’s what he was up to.

Threats against English teacher Laurie Hickey were discovered March 24 painted in white letters across a row of school lockers and on a student mural of a seascape. “Hicky’s dead,” said one misspelled message.

Additional threats that included obscenities were scratched into the front of a campus refrigerator and the teacher’s car, which had been parked at her apartment near the school, police and school administrators said.

Hickey, 25, in her first year of teaching, said she has taken a leave of absence from her job and moved out of her apartment because of the fear that the graffiti instilled in her.

Police, who have made no arrests in the case, are treating the vandalism as a hate crime, said Lt. Richard Blankenship of the Los Angeles Police Department. He said investigators suspect it is the work of a student.

Administrators said that they have experienced no other such incidents since the 48-student school opened three years ago.

The school, owned by a Japanese businessman who runs another school in Japan, has grades seven through 12, and costs $4,500 to $5,500 a year.

It is scheduled to close in June for unspecified reasons, said a school employee, who declined to be identified.

Harding said he was informed of a possible suspect by a student on Thursday afternoon. He said he hoped that other people who knew about the vandalism would come forward if they believed he was taking handwriting samples as evidence.

“I used it as a scare tactic to try to bring people forward who would clinch my case,” Harding said. He said he did not discuss his plans with police or the school administration.

When the students were called together at 10 a.m. Friday, Altounji said, Harding told students to get out paper and pens and take dictation.

“He told us to write each and every single one of the profanities,” said Neda Broumand, a 16-year-old sophomore. “He dictated it several times. He told us to write it the way we would write it with a pen on a wall.”

Included in the writing samples, which students were required to sign, were the profanities as well as the phrases, “Kill, Kill, Kill” and “I will kill you,” said Aaron Pruner, a 15-year-old sophomore.

Several parents complained about Harding’s tactics. Paula Pruner said she would be checking with other private schools on the possibility of transferring her son, Aaron, partly in response to the Friday incident.

“I just don’t feel that it was handled right,” she said. “I was very upset.”