EDITORIAL ROMER'S PASSION ATTACK ON STUDENT UNDERLINES AN UNWILLINGNESS TO HEAR PROBLEMS.

WAY to go, Roy.

The Los Angeles school superintendent was well on the way to creating a lasting legacy as the man who led the district into the 21st century with new schools and improved student achievement. But instead, he very well may be remembered as the mean old grouch who made a brave little girl cry.

Fairfax High School student Gina Park was invited to speak at the board of education meeting Tuesday night along with two other students. She had prepared comments about what's going right at her Westside school and what's going wrong - students must contend with rats, parking crunches and academic problems.

As student body president, Park was doing her duty to make sure the leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District were aware of the problems she and her fellow students face in trying to finish school.

But instead of taking in the information and addressing it with sensitivity, Romer rebuked the teenager for making ``unbalanced'' comments, insinuating that students are whiners who don't see things the way he does.

Those watching the meeting sat stunned as the unseemly scene unfolded and Park burst into tears. School board members got Romer to apologize.

It was a small incident that highlights a growing problem for Romer.

His passion has become resurrecting the LAUSD after decades of decline due to poor leadership, and Romer is so certain that he has all the answers that he ignores other points of view, even from students.

Clearly, he inherited a tough situation, where teachers and parents feel alienated from the vast bureaucracy, and now he faces a union-dominated school board that seems less interested in the welfare of students than teachers and gives every indication it wants Romer gone.

Outbursts by Romer like Tuesday's will only confirm what many suspect: that members of the school community will not be listened to, or even worse, that they will be attacked for pointing out problems.

Romer needs to catch his breath.

The LAUSD cannot make some great leap forward either in the classroom or in its school building program. It needs to evolve steadily, and a lot of problems Romer has ignored - like cutting the bloated bureaucracy down to size, developing a transparent budgeting process and empowering local communities - need to be fixed.

It takes more than just building schools to make the district work; it takes building relationships and educational excellence among the school community. But that has been pushed aside for a mad rush to get schools built, and to squeeze even more money out of taxpayers to pay for them.

School buildings alone won't ensure a strong education base. It takes high morale among teachers unchained from too much bureaucratic control, and a commitment to learning that happens whether or not the classroom walls are new or old.

It's a great thing for a leader to be so strongly moved to lead, and Romer deserved credit for progress made. But there's a fine line between being passionate and being overbearing.