Honolulu Lite

by Charles Memminger

Friday, January 7, 2000

Students can teach
thieves a lesson

WHAT kind of jerks would steal 24 brand new computers from a high school? What kind of high school would leave 24 brand new computers sitting around in a lightly secured room?

The answer to the second question is that Campbell High School is just like every other public high school in Hawaii, living in the past. Once upon a time, schools didn't have to have 24-hour guards, metal detectors, bomb sniffing dogs, motion sensors, video surveillance and classrooms super-enforced like bank vaults. But those happy Norman Rockwell days are over.

Today, public schools need to be a cross between Fort Knox and a minimum security prison. School administrators have to keep bad kids out, good kids in and bolt down everything else. Somewhere along the line, learning supposedly occurs.

Campbell High School has been a particular target of jerks with a penchant for technology. Weeks before the new year, seven computers were stolen. Then to usher in the year 2000, the jerks went back for the mother lode: 24 spanking new orange iMac computers. All they had to do was drill holes in a wooden door with a doorknob drill bit and then reach in and undo the deadbolt. Voila! The cute little Volkswagon-like computers were simply plucked off the tables like ripe fruit.

Campbell Estate, The Abigail Campbell Foundation (neither is associated with the school) and First Hawaiian Bank have donated money to replace the computers. And school officials say they will keep them in a secure place, which I assume is NOT in Walter Dods' main cash vault.

IT'S very neighborly of those folks to help the kids. But the students themselves need to take action.

I think what is a needed is a special school project -- for which the students would get academic credit -- to recover the stolen computers and, if possible, send the thieves to jail. You could call it Forensic Investigation 101.

In this class students would be divided into several teams. They include:

Advance Notification Team. These students would alert swap meet vendors, pawn shop owners and computer businesses about the thefts and ask them to contact police if anyone tries to sell them the distinctive orange computers.

iMac Undercover Strike Force. These students would visit pawn shops, swap meets and other outlets in an undercover role to see if any of the stolen computers are on the market.

Community Investigation Squad. These students would talk to residents, scan "for sale" ads in papers and collect any information on the coconut wireless about the thefts and pass it on to police.

Public Affairs Division. These kids would go on television, give interviews and generally do everything possible to keep the thefts in the public eye.

By taking an active role in the recovery of the computers, the students can show that they will not be passive victims. The police can do only so much. But the students, their families and friends constitute a huge information network to find the computers. And the computers will surface eventually. Whoever took them weren't some Internet geeks who needed more hard-drive space.

To answer my first question, the kind of jerks who stole these computers are the kind of jerks who will do anything to make easy money. Campbell High School students should make it as difficult as possible for them.

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Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.

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