Maybe you've heard about how Coconut Grove Elementary School principal Eva N. Ravelo accidentally sent an email to a parent telling her to "eat sh-- and die." We here at Riptide are of course shocked and saddened.

Shocked and saddened that a person leading an institution meant to enrich our young children's creativity and intelligence can not come up with a better insult and is apparently too stupid to know how to use email correctly.

Abigail DuBearn, a parent and a member of a school advisory committee, sent an email to Ravelo asking if student representatives could be notified about an upcoming meeting of the committee. Ravelo replied "Advise her to eat sh-- and die" (Riptide does not shy away from swear words; she actually spelled it with the dashes.) The email was supposed to go to the school's assistant principal. Ravelo instead accidentally sent it to DuBearn.

Ravelo, who is still in charge, has been advised not to speak to the media. The school's reading coach told the Miami Herald that the principal has apologized and that the language reflects tension between the PTA and the administration.

The PTA says that ridiculous, and one parent wrote to the Herald that "Ms. Ravelo's email reflects the tone of her leadership and the poverty of her intellectual thought." Ding! Ding! Ding!

Sly wit is often under-appreciated, but really, all children should have some grasp of it. If you're going to insult someone, at least do it half-intelligently. What does it say that this principal can't come up with anything better than "eat sh-- and die"?

That's the insult equivalent of a student turning in a hastily scribbled picture of a smiley face with yarn messily glued on for hair for his/her self-portrait assignment in art class -- simply uncreative.

Anyway, the school board says that Ravelo otherwise has been an effective administrator but that the incident is under review.

[Herald: Miami principal's potty-mouthed e-mail to parent sparks controversy]