A Pandora’s box for teachers

Finding the perfect gift to express the holiday spirit is never easy, but students and their parents have been known to bestow on favorite teachers tokens both weird and lavish.

They have included the practical -- homemade bread, body lotions and pricey gift certificates; the eclectic -- handmade noodles from a father who owns a noodle factory and custom-made CDs recorded at one family’s home; and the plain eccentric -- a ceramic urn engraved with the phrase “teacher’s ashes.”

As teachers receive their umpteenth coffee mug imprinted with a red-suited Santa, colored Hanukkah candles and other mementos of the season’s festivities, many say a heartfelt note of thanks is what’s most treasured.

“Every year, those sorts of things are sweet and very appreciated,” said Azizi Gibbs, a former teacher and now assistant director at the Sequoyah School, a private elementary campus in Pasadena.

But the gift-giving tradition that has been around as long as children have walked through school doors is also provoking soul-searching among educators concerned with the ethical implications of parents’ largesse. Many schools -- public and private -- are adopting policies that discourage gifts or impose limitations so that particular teachers aren’t favored with armfuls of goodies while others head out for holiday vacation empty-handed.

The policies also lift the financial burden on students of little means who might feel compelled to compete with their better-off peers, said many school officials.

Recent news stories about a public school in Irvine where faculty allegedly demanded expensive jewels, perfumes and clothing in exchange for accepting a special needs student also have reinforced some educators’ desire to reconsider what is an appropriate expression of appreciation.

“After that broke in the news, a couple of board members came to me saying we don’t have a policy, maybe we should look at it,” said Beverly Hills Unified School District Supt. Kari McVeigh.

The Beverly Hills district is looking to adopt guidelines that will make it easier for teachers to say thanks but no thanks to gifts that seem inappropriate. But McVeigh -- who admitted to receiving in a long career more Avon products than any human being could possibly use -- said teachers shouldn’t have to adopt Scrooge-like personas during the holidays.

“I’m not inclined to move forward on a no-gift policy. I want staff and teachers to feel that students and their families can show gratitude.”

The Noble and Greenough School, a private campus in Dedham, Mass., discourages significant gift-giving to teachers and even on-campus gift exchanges among students.

“A piece of our rationale is that we always want our teachers to do what they believe is in the best interests of their students, be it in grading or who to keep on a team, and to not feel particularly indebted to parents,” said Ben Snyder, head of the upper school. “That could create an inherent conflict of interest and temptation to compromise integrity that we really don’t want to be a part of.”

Employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District cannot receive gifts worth more than $100 from any one source in a calendar year. A further rule prohibits teachers from accepting gifts of “material value” from students. But the rule does not define “material value,” and school principals have discretion over what to allow.

Still, the district has bolstered its ethics office and will launch an initiative next year to make teachers more aware of the gift policy and encourage parents to support school-wide programs rather than individual teachers, said ethics officer Yea-Lan Chiang.

Campuses such as Berkeley Hall in Los Angeles and the Walden School in Pasadena have adopted holiday funds, to which families can make cash contributions to be divided equally among faculty and staff -- usually in the form of gift certificates to large retailers and bookstores.

At the Aspen Country Day School, an independent school in Colorado, a parent committee sends letters and collects checks for the Teacher’s Holiday Fund. Full-time teachers receive an average of $550.

“As a parent who has so much going on at holiday time, it’s so much easier to write one check and it goes to all my kids’ teachers,” said Robin Danell, who has worked on the fundraising effort for years. “That’s the completely selfish angle. It’s easy. I don’t put any thought into it. I used to bake cookies; we don’t even do that anymore.”

Still, many families, infused with holiday cheer, continue to share tidings with teachers in myriad ways. Alison Quoyeser, a teacher at the Ross School, a public elementary in wealthy Marin County, said gifts there have included overnight stays in bed and breakfast inns, massages at exclusive spas and gift certificates for upscale restaurants.

Her most memorable gift came from an especially creative room mother:

“She created a treasure hunt of handwritten clues in rhyme that led me and my class of fourth-graders all around the school until we finally arrived at the gift: bottles of frosty Orangina, exquisite little fruit tarts for all and a colorful scrapbook of pictures and words of appreciation from each student.”

One of the more macabre gifts, the ceramic urn, was given to a teacher at the Aspen school, said communications director Carolyn Hines. “She recalls wondering, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ ” Hines said.

At the Sequoyah School, which received the noodles, administrators considered adopting a gift policy this year but decided against it.

“Parents feel strongly about the gifts they give, and many look forward to this chance,” said Gibbs, who attended Sequoyah as a student and remembers giving nicely wrapped baked goods to her teachers.

The arts-minded Bando family began recording CDs for Sequoyah faculty about five years ago, using father Toshi Bando’s home recording equipment and cover art designed by daughters Emily, 11, Jazzmyn, 8, and twins Melody and Minuet, 9. Their first CD was titled “Bandos Singing Beatles,” and the discs have become a holiday tradition.

The latest release, handed out Friday at the school’s holiday party, is “Bandos Singing Folk Songs,” with such ditties as “This Land Is Your Land” and “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

“Every year we say we’re not going to give them anymore because it’s so corny,” mother Lillian Bando said. “But the kids say, no, we have to think of gifts for our teachers.” She said the teachers play the annual CD in school, “and it turned out that the other students love it too. It’s a great way to celebrate teachers and students and what they learn in school.”

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carla.rivera@latimes.com