[ OUR OPINION ]
A delay in installing a traffic signal at a Farrington Highway intersection isn't the first time such a project has lagged behind schedule. This time, however, the holdup may have resulted in serious injury to a teenage girl, who was struck by a truck near Waiomea Street where a signal should have been finished last December. Public must demand
government projects
be finished on time
THE ISSUE A teenage pedestrian was injured at an intersection where traffic signals should have been in place eight months ago.
The public, which has come to expect that government work will seldom be done when officials promise, no longer should accept this as satisfactory. Taxpayers should demand that government meet its deadlines, particularly when public safety is a factor.
When work began on the signal in April 2001, the completion date was set for December. Almost eight months later, the project remains unfinished. An engineer for the state Department of Transportation said the reason for the delay was that the project grew to an overhaul of the intersection, indicating that the work went beyond what was initially planned. Be that as it may, when the signal installation was first designed, traffic engineers should have anticipated that more needed to be done. After all, this isn't the first signal the DOT has had to put up.
Granted, unpredictable matters can hold up projects, but in this case it appears that a significant part of the delay was caused when a subcontractor used new machinery to erect a concrete median barrier that would hold one of the traffic lights. Unfamiliar with the equipment, the company had a difficult time. It had to tear down the barrier three times before it met specifications.
After the first mishap, the DOT should have demanded that the job be done without the equipment. To allow the contractor to mess up three times is absurd; work that involves public safety isn't the occasion to test new machinery. The state should not let the company use the equipment again until assured it will perform properly. It also should consider barring the contractor from future government work.
The intersection is known to be dangerous. Police say a number of accidents have occurred there, including the death of a woman and her child several years ago. Plans for a traffic signal have been on the books since at least 1998 and area residents have had to push hard through the years to get the light installed.
DOT officials say that the signals will be working sometime next month. The public should hold them to that promise.
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SINCE President Bill Clinton called in his 1996 State of the Union address for uniforms to be worn by public school students, nearly half of the nation's urban schools have required their students to homogenize their attire. However, about 40 percent of those schools allow students to opt out under varying degrees of restriction. The policies will continue to be controversial, but court challenges have failed. Uniform policy fits
constitutional rules
THE ISSUE Two students are refusing to abide by Waianae High School's new uniform policy.
Waianae High School went uniform for the school year that just began, but Naomi and Micah Medeiros, with mother Kapula Medeiros' support, are refusing to comply. They contend they have the right to wear their own clothing at school and want to be included among the handful of classmates who were given waivers; the mother says she missed the deadline for applying for the waiver.
Schools generally have adopted the uniform policy on the basis that it improves the students' performance, promotes self-confidence and esteem, increases attendance, helps discipline and reduces the number of drop-outs. Waianae school officials say the high school's policy was adopted last year for safety reasons, making it easier to spot outsiders on campus. Students must cite a civil-rights reason to obtain a waiver.
The waiver policy is consistent with an opinion written last year by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the uniform policy of a Louisiana school district. King wrote that a uniform policy is constitutional if the policy doesn't censor students' expression or if restrictions on expression are "incidental" and necessary to promote the school board's interest.
A manual sent to the nation's school boards by the U.S. Department of Education includes similar guidance. Students should be allowed to "display religious messages on items of clothing" and wear religious attire such as yarmulkes and head scarves. Also, students must be free to display "expressive items." That may include a button supporting a political candidate but not one bearing a gang insignia. Waivers beyond those exceptions could render a uniform policy ineffective.
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