Maili picket It's 7:30 a.m., and two Maili Elementary School teachers who have decided to cross picket lines see something they almost cannot believe.
confrontation
turns ugly
HPD threatens arrests
Some drivers ticketed By Rod Antone
when strikers block
2 working teachers
Star-Bulletin
It's a gate into the school with no strikers blocking it.
As they make their way through the gate, a white truck pulls up about 20 feet away with a group of people bearing strike signs in the bed. A woman yells: "Go home, scabs! Go home, scabs!"
By then it's too late, and both women have made their way down the hallway to the administration office.
"I'm so happy," says one of the teachers, who calls herself Allison. "This is a great day."
The other teacher wants to be identified only as Phyllis. Neither name is their own, and they have agreed to be interviewed only if they are not identified.
"Our names are already mud around here," says Phyllis.
But by the time they arrive at their classroom, concerns about mud are gone. Wax is the substance they are wondering about now -- especially since all the classroom keyholes have been filled in with it."Ooh, so you want to play with me," says Allison. "Trying to lock me out of my room now."
Eventually, both teachers clear out the wax and open the door. Lesson plans are started and books are sorted. Life goes on inside the classroom as both explain why they, along with 128 other teachers yesterday, decided to cross HSTA picket lines.
"I believe that all of this could have been resolved in a more peaceful manner a while back," says Phyllis. "It's like, this is not the answer; a strike is not the answer."
"I support what they believe in. Why can't they support what I believe in?" says Allison. "Each person is entitled to his or her own opinion."
The opinion out on the picket line is that by walking past union members, both women have shown disrespect to the entire teaching profession.
"When they say they support us, crossing the picket line is not supporting us," says Rebecca Hadley-Schlosser, a special-education teacher and Maili Elementary strike captain. "That's basically giving the message to the governor that they don't care what sort of settlement we come up with."
"It's like a slap in our face because we stand out here 10 hours a day to picket," says Desire DeSoto, a Waianae High School counselor who came to support Maili picketers. "And these people are collecting their pay for eight hours, sitting or eating or reading a book or whatever they're doing while we're standing here in the hot sun."The temperature outside hits 92 degrees before noon. Inside Portable No. 11, the heat is less, but it is without a cool breeze. There, Phyllis and Allison stamp the school name and address inside textbooks, a task usually done by librarians.
The question of money is brought up. Both women say it is an issue but not their main concern. Phyllis is single with no children, and Allison acknowledges that with her husband in the military, housing is not as much of an issue as it is with other teachers. Again they say their reasons for walking on campus are based on what they believe in, not their paycheck.
"I love my job," says Allison. "I would never go on a strike against kids."
"It's not that I'm fighting them; I'm standing up for what I believe in," says Phyllis. "I'm sure there are some teachers out there -- and I'm not criticizing them -- who are out there walking because they feel like they have no other choice. But they do."
Later, picketers would challenge that argument by yelling, "So give your paycheck up and buy some textbooks." But that would be when both teachers tried to leave campus.
As it is, things are quiet at Maili Elementary until 1:25 p.m. That is when the picketers located at the closest entrance near Portable 11 start chanting.
"Will we let the scabs out? No! No! No! No! No!"
"Jan ken po, scabs gotta go!"
The volume increases when 2 p.m. rolls around. And at 2:05, Phyllis and Allison are again faced with crossing the picket lines, but this time there is no unguarded gate. Maili teachers are again joined by half a dozen or so supporters from Waianae High School, and the circle blocking the entrance grows to almost 20 people.
"Scabs, remember who fought for your paychecks!"
"The two of you are scabs, and that's a fact. Join us!"
"1-3-5-7, no scabs go to heaven!"
"2-4-6-8, He shall judge them at the gate!"
"Real teachers stand together! Real teachers stand together!"
"From coast to coast, all the scabs gotta go!"
Both sides stand their ground. No one leaves, and the chants do not die down.
This is a strike, after all.
Then, at about 2:25, 20 minutes after the stand-off started, the police arrive. Phyllis called them at some point after she felt the union's "reasonable amount of time" they can block her entrance had come and gone.
Police officer Ed Michaels gets on scene and asks that the line be broken so both teachers are allowed to pass. Calvin Nakano, a strike captain and Maili school computer resource teacher, disagrees, saying that a "reasonable time" has not passed.
"Our time is half an hour," says Nakano.
"Well, that's not my time," says Michaels.
Michaels again orders picketers to let the two women pass. At this point Phyllis and Allison attempt to squeeze between two cars, away from the picket line, and the line turns into a mob that moves to block both women from getting through.
Michaels tells Nakano to break the line or arrests will be made. To make his point, Michaels breaks out his handcuffs.
Nakano calls for a break in the line, and the two women are let through. As picketers walk off, harsh words are exchanged, and someone accuses Michaels of working part time as a "substitute teacher."
Afterward, Phyllis says she is "shocked," but vows she is "not going to back down" and is "more committed than ever."
Allison does not want to comment.
And at the end of the day, one woman looks on and sighs. Maili Principal Linda Victor walked the picket lines in 1973, and now she is on the other side, working for the administration. Victor knows that one day the strike will be over, and her staff will have to put away their differences. At least she hopes so.
"This is hard on both sides. I'm afraid that we will have a divided campus," says Victor. "But you can't put the blame on either side. It's something that was going to happen and that we knew was going to happen."
Three motorists were cited yesterday after driving through picket lines of community-college and university professors and instructors. Impatient drivers
By Rosemarie Bernardo
get tickets for
skirting pickets
Star-BulletinSince the start of the HSTA/UHPA strike Thursday, a total of six citations have been given, mostly to motorists for violating pedestrian (picketers') right of way, said Assistant Police Chief Stephen Watarai of the Honolulu Police Department.
No injuries were reported.
Police officers were posted at 24 of 170 schools statewide mainly because most schools were closed.
At Kapiolani Community College-Diamond Head yesterday, Watarai said a male student got impatient, drove around the driveway and over the sidewalk into the parking lot, Watarai said. He was cited for disobeying a police officer when he was told by an officer not to proceed.
A similar incident also occurred at Kapiolani Community College, and a third at the lower campus at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
Because of the strike, 12 officers were added from the Criminal Investigation Division, Junior Police Officers Unit and the Juvenile Services Division to assist patrol units at strike posts, he said.
"All police officers were instructed to have their uniforms handy and be ready to stand strike posts," Watarai said.
If the strike continues, Watarai predicts the situation will get worse.
>> HSTA Web site
>> UHPA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site