By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — When vandals destroyed palm trees at Keolu Elementary over the weekend, it wasn’t the first time someone had targeted plants on a school campus recently, and police are looking for possible links between the two incidents.
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| Custodian Madeleine Martinez tends to the palm trees destroyed at Keolu Elementary School.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Detective Margaret Hirakawa, who is investigating the Keolu vandalism, said she also is working on a case involving trees at Mililani High School.
"It becomes something bigger if we can tie them all together," Hirakawa said. "But we haven’t got enough to do that yet."
At Keolu, seven palm trees, numerous ti plants and other trees and bushes were slashed or destroyed. In the Mililani incident, during the weekend of Jan. 27, eight rare koa trees were uprooted and pushed over and some garbage cans were smashed, she said. The koa trees were estimated to be worth about $1,600.
None of the plants was removed for possible resale, Hirakawa said, so no motive has been established.
Both schools are somewhat remote and out of the casual view of passers-by. Mililani sits above the road, and people would have to make an effort to look up to see anything, she said.
"If you’re not paying attention you wouldn’t notice anything," Hirakawa said.
Keolu sits below the main thoroughfare and would require motorists to take their eyes off the road to see activities on campus. A playground attached to the school is popular with skateboarders and basketball players.
The school is lighted at night and has an alarm system.
As of yesterday, Hirakawa said she had little to go on in either case. In Mililani no one saw anything, she said. In Keolu witnesses reported seeing three males and a female in a Jeep-like automobile, but details are sketchy. Without help from other witnesses the case may go unresolved, she said.
Calculating the number of vandalism incidents on school property is difficult, said Raynor Minami, head of the Facilities Branch for the state Department of Education. Not all cases are reported because schools will make minor repairs themselves.
"But it is a perpetual problem," Minami said.
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