Newsmaker

Report: Woods apologizes to school parents

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-02-24 06:22

ORLANDO, Fla.: Tiger Woods has offered another apology, this time to parents of children at the preschool that his 2-year-old daughter attends, an Orlando television station reported Tuesday.

Report: Woods apologizes to school parents

Tiger Woods pauses while delivering a statement to friends and family in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, February 19, 2010. [Agencies]

WFTV reported on its Web site that it has obtained a letter that Woods and his wife, Elin, wrote to parents of children attending Premier Academy to apologize for increased media scrutiny around the school.

"We hope that the paparazzi will find something better to do with their time in the near future," the letter said.

Media coverage around Woods and his family has been intense since the Nov. 27 accident outside his home led to revelations that the world's No. 1 golfer had been cheating on his wife. Woods did not make his first public appearance until Friday at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla..

Woods' wife did not attend his nationally televised appearance, and photographers were seen outside the Premier Academy that day. WFTV says an off-duty sheriff's deputy has been hired to sit outside the school.

The station did not say when the letter was sent.

During his 13 1/2-minute statement, Woods lashed out at paparazzi for chasing after his family, including his daughter, Sam.

"However, my behavior doesn't make it right for the media to follow my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to school and report the school's location," Woods said. "They staked out my wife and they pursued my mom. Whatever my wrongdoings, for the sake of my family, please leave my wife and kids alone."

Woods thanks parents for their support and did not indicate he would remove his daughter from the school.

"In the meantime, it is our goal to keep life as normal as possible for our children," the letter said. "We are sure that as parents you can appreciate that. For Sam, that normalcy means attending the school that she enjoys so much."