Nanakuli students
continue brawling

CORRECTION Thursday, February 10, 2005 » Eight students, one of them an 18-year-old adult male, were arrested after fights at Nanakuli High School on Monday. A Page A1 article on Tuesday did not make clear that the adult arrested was also a student. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

Seven Nanakuli High School students and one adult were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct yesterday after the latest in a string of embarrassing on-campus brawls at Leeward Oahu public schools.

Police officers were forced to use pepper spray when a large and unruly crowd refused to disperse and became aggressive toward the officers, said Maj. Mike Tamashiro, of the Honolulu Police Department.

"Some of those present challenged our officers physically. Officers were pushed, and one was struck on the back of the head," Tamashiro said. "They were taunting police and refused to return to the school buildings."

Five of those arrested were taken to hospital for treatment after being sprayed, he said, and others involved in the fight sustained minor injuries, but no police officers were hurt.

"One girl passed out" after being pepper-sprayed, said junior Benjamin Weiss, who was also sprayed.

Witnesses said several fights broke out on the campus from Wednesday through Friday and that yesterday's fights were a continuation of last week's brawls.

On Friday one group of boys who hang out at Building D allegedly threw rocks at a girl. She called her brother and his friends jumped in, students said.

Yesterday, groups from Buildings D and E clashed during lunch time in what one student described as a "big riot."

"Almost every day get fight," Weiss said. "They don't know how go one on one. ... Over here, about mobs."

Witnesses said yesterday's brawl involved 50 to 100 people, but most were onlookers.

Nanakuli's school safety manager, Ned Campbell, said that while arguments occur daily, yesterday's melees were unusual.

Large fights had only erupted once during each of the previous two years, he said.

No serious injuries have been reported in any of the Oahu schools' recent brawls, which school officials say are unrelated.

However, they have uncovered the schools' inability to maintain order. Assistant schools Superintendent Clayton Fujie said yesterday the Department of Education will review school safety policies.

"We're going to meet with our principals to look at safety plans and crisis plans to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of their roles," he said. "We need to make sure our teachers and kids are safe."

Hawaii high schools typically have a privately contracted school safety manager and one to three security attendants on site.

Nanakuli will ask for four more security attendants in addition to its five.

In addition to yesterday's violence, fights last week at Radford, Waipahu, Waianae and Nanakuli high schools spiraled out of control, crossing campus boundaries and forcing schools to implement lock-downs and to call in police to restore order.

Campbell said yesterday's melee began on an off-campus street above the school around 11:30 a.m. Police sent students back to school, but more fights erupted on campus, he said.

Fujie said order was not restored until 12:15 p.m., after at least a dozen police officers were deployed. A lock-down was ordered after lunch.

Witnesses said a police helicopter also buzzed the school.

"As soon as we heard the helicopter, students came running into my room ... and I closed the door," said Emily Ichise, a Japanese-language teacher. "They said, 'Oh my god, this is scary.'"

Eighth-grader Kawika Kaohu said he was not afraid, "but we're just here for school." He was disappointed because he could not attend his sixth-period math class.

Kaohu suggested separating the intermediate from the high school, which he said would cut down on the size of the crowds that surround the fights.

Each schools' fights appear to have sprung from unrelated disputes, and police and school officials said the timing was mere coincidence.

However, Fujie said media coverage of a fight at Radford High School on Jan. 29 may have inspired copycats elsewhere.

"That did cross our minds," he said. "Whenever there is a bomb scare at a school, other schools always get them, too. That's always a possibility."

Vice Principal Flora Nash said the fights at Nanakuli were not race- or gang-related, but about territory, "like dogs marking their spot."

She blames cell phones for contributing to the escalation of the fights.

"Kids call home, and parents come on campus or call other kids and it just mushrooms," Nash said.

Parents who went to school Friday were agitated, Nash said, but she was not aware of any parents actually participating.

Yesterday, some parents picked up their children after hearing about the fights. Nash would like to organize a parent meeting to encourage parents to urge their children not to get involved as a participant or spectator.

However, Nash said educators have a difficult job because students everywhere come to school "already programmed by music and movies," picking up an "everything goes" attitude. She said some, who lack social mores and morals and are guided by selfishness, influence others.