Thieves steal Headstart fun
By Jessica Webster
Advertiser Staff Writer
Some children in the Barbers Point Elementary School Headstart program thought their playground equipment was taken away because they were naughty.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
That's when teacher Chanelle Kaneshiro was forced to explain the concept of burglary to her class of 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds.
Patrick Villanueva, left, and his Headstart classmate, Nalua'i Cooper, both 4, play with the only outdoor toys left after thieves stole large pieces of playground equipment from Barbers Point Elementary School grounds.
"So, I think a bad man stole it," said 4-year-old Nalua'i Cooper. "It makes me sad. It was ours. They didn't ask if they could take it."
Two large, colorful plastic jungle gyms with slides and tubes, a merry-go-round and a sandbox were stolen over the weekend from the secluded school on Boxer Road. It was the Headstart's only outdoor play equipment, and probably worth about $1,300. What's left for the dozen children are a few splotches of dry grass and dirt.
Apparently, someone drove up to the 3-foot chain-link fence, opened the unlocked gate and loaded the equipment into a vehicle, probably taking several trips to haul it all away. The equipment was too heavy to carry any distance, said Kaneshiro.
The lax security at Barbers Point Elementary is not a revelation. Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said he knows the school has security issues, and there were plans to build a 6-foot-high fence around the school next year.
Now the kids are playing with the program's other minimal equipment — a few 20-year-old metal tricycles, some worn Little Tykes cars, balls and plastic hula hoops.
Pauahi Cooper, Nalua'i's mother, said she hopes someone brings it back, no questions asked.
"It's really sad that children have to be exposed to this," said Kaneshiro. "And the hardest part was that they thought we took it away."
