Lingle fills
vacant BOE seat

Darwin Ching, an attorney who failed last year in his run for the Board of Education, was appointed to it yesterday by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Darwin Ching: The attorney failed last year in his election bid to join the Board of Education

Ching, who will be 59 later this month, will fill the Oahu at-large seat vacated when member Shannon Ajifu died in June.

Ching immediately voiced support for Lingle's now-defunct plan to break up the statewide school district into smaller districts, an idea that Ajifu had opposed, and said he would push for other unspecified "positive reforms."

"We should always be able to have frank and open discussions about different ideas," he said.

Ching, a lawyer in private practice focusing on criminal, personal injury and family law cases, has done stints as an attorney in the city prosecutor's office, as a deputy state attorney general, and as a social studies teacher at Kaimuki Intermediate School in the 1970s.

The Kalani High School graduate said he plans to use his legal background to help support teachers trying to enforce discipline in unruly classrooms but who worry about the repercussions.

"They need to know that they have rights, too," he said.

Ching is the second board member recently appointed to a vacant seat by Lingle, who installed business consultant Paul Vierling in May.

Supporters of Lingle's education ideas, however, remain solidly in the minority on the 14-member board.

Ching will serve out the remainder of Ajifu's term, which ends next year, and can run again after that.