LETTERS : G.H. HIGH IS DEPICTED INACCURATELY.

Bill Schlotter's article on L.A. Baptist's Jermaine Sweet (Dec. 25) was offensive to all those students and educators who make Granada Hills High an exemplary school. It also is offensive to me, a parent of mixed-race children who have and are attending Granada Hills High School.

The article perpetuates the myth that large public high schools are ridden with gangs, violence and drugs. Students are not harassed on the Granada Hills campus. Gang members do not sell drugs on every street corner. Racial conflicts are nonexistent. When problems do arise at the high school, they are dealt with promptly and effectively by a concerned, intelligent, hard-working faculty and administration.

Why not tell the truth . . . Jermaine Sweet was recruited to play basketball at L.A.B. Someone pays his fees; someone drives him to school. Good friends did not save him from Granada Hills High . . . good friends recruited him to L.A.B.

L.A. Baptist is using Jermaine Sweet for its benefit and it is paid off with articles like Schlotter's. As the TV commercial states, ``Get Real.'' I'll put Granada Hills' academic or athletic programs (past or present) up against L.A.B.'s any day of the year.

C'mon Bill, you do not need to bash L.A. City schools in the sports section just because your paper does it on the front page.

GAY D. TURNER

Northridge

Incentive Clause

With college and professional football coaches coming and going like revolving doors, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to put them on commission. Think how much money would be saved in the long run. Pay them $7,000-9,000 for each win.

GARY TRAXLER

Oxnard

Baby oh Baby

When Lakers general manager Jerry West signed Shaquille O'Neal to a seven-year, $120 million contract, he compared the moment to the birth of his sons.

How could any man compare the act of becoming a father - the greatest moment in his life - to the signing of a highly lucrative contract. It is absolutely shameful that anyone can place the birth of a baby purely on a money basis. How can a father make such an awful comparison?

JESSE LEVINE 

North Hollywood

Bad team, man, bad team

1989 was the year L.A. hockey was born with the Great One's arrival.

1995 was the year L.A. hockey bid farewell to the Great One.

1996 was the year L.A. bid farewell to the Kings and hockey.

CHARLES SELESNOW

Woodland Hills

Zeile is a gentleman

About letters in your paper regarding Todd Zeile: I would like to say that sports needs more people like him. I had the opportunity to score for him in a charity golf tournament he chaired and a nicer gentlemen I haven't met for a long time in the entertainment/sports field. We need more people like Todd, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods for our children to look up to instead of Dennis Rodman, who is paid ridiculous sums to be obnoxious.

MARLENE GORDAN

Santa Clarita 

Wake-up call

A copy of a story on UCLA's 6:30 a.m. practices appeared in the Dec. 15 Raleigh News and Observer. It was truly one of the most unsettling commentaries on ``big time'' collegiate sports - because of what it didn't say.

Cameron Dollar says, ``I love (the early practice)'' because ``we get out of here at 9, I get a little nap and I've got the day free.''

Not a word about study time or attending classes. The regents, the trustees and the university administration should be blushing scarlet.

I'm a long way from your state, but such an egregious demonstration of the failure of educational standards at a basketball factory makes me raise a small voice in dismay.

GORDON DALTON

Pinehurst, N.C.