[ OUR OPINION ]
Council should give OK
to land exchange
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The 3,992-step stairway was built during World War II to reach a Navy radio facility. The stairs gained popularity with hikers in the 1980s but were shut down in 1987 because of vandalism. The city repaired the stairs with federal help, but plans to reopen them collapsed two years ago when Hope Chapel of Kaneohe Bay refused to let hikers use its parking lot. The church initially had approved the used of its lot.
The city engaged in talks about the land swap with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, which owns most of Haiku Valley. After more than a year of negotiations, they were far apart: The city offered 20 acres and 57 house lots in Ewa Villages in exchange for the 147-acre former Coast Guard Omega Station in Haiku Valley.
The final agreement calls for the city to provide 52.7 acres in Ewa in exchange for 65.6 acres in Haiku Valley, with each property appraised at $3.1 million. The Ewa land includes 33.2 acres in the city's undeveloped Varona Village in Ewa Villages and 19.5 acres nearby. The Haiku Valley land is unsuitable for housing.
Hawaiian Home Lands spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka says the department plans to develop the Ewa sites, and the statement should be taken seriously. The department announced its agreement earlier this month to acquire land from other agencies for construction of more than 3,500 homes, the boldest advancement by the department in its eight-decade history.
The agreement will be of relief to many Haiku residents who grew tired of trespassing hikers who ignored the "no access" sign at the stairs and left rubbish in their yards, walked through flower beds and parked in front of driveways, trash cans and mailboxes. The stairway is certain to be a popular attraction, and residents might have a new concern about increased traffic, but the main problems of parking and access have been solved.
Mid-Pac drug tests
could be a model
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The school had considered mandatory drug testing early last year. As a private school, it could have done so without legal challenge, but has opted instead for a program that tests students' urine only if they and their parents consent.
Patterned after a drug-testing program at a public high school in San Clemente, Calif., the program would be operated by an outside company that would report results only to the parents. Mid-Pacific's faculty and staff would not be informed of the results, and no punitive action would be taken against students who test positive for illicit drugs.
The program would provide insight to city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, whose son attends Mid-Pac. Carlisle has been a proponent of drug testing, proposing at one point that every public high school student be tested at the opening of the school year and one-fourth of the students randomly tested through the remainder of the year. However, mandatory testing of public school students has been struck down.
The usefulness of voluntary tests may be questioned if school officials are not made privy to the results. However, John Hamro, a vice principal at San Clemente, told Mid-Pac parents that the tests force families to discuss drugs and gives students an excuse to resist peer pressure to use drugs.
School officials should not be left totally in the dark. The company should be able to provide data indicating the level of drug use at the school to make Mid-Pac officials aware of the magnitude of the drug problem.
A national survey conducted last year by University of Michigan social scientists found that 37 percent of high school seniors at schools where they were tested for drugs reported having smoked marijuana, compared with 36 percent at schools without drug tests. A survey of Mid-Pac students before the tests are conducted and after the program is under way could be useful in determining the effectiveness of the tests, without invading students' privacy.
