Shooting rumors to keep Maui High closed

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui Bureau

KAHULUI, Maui — Maui's largest high school remained closed today after students were sent home yesterday in the wake of widespread rumors of a threatened shooting on campus.

No incidents were reported at Maui High School yesterday, and Maui Police Department officers were continuing to investigate several leads, with no arrests made.

State Department of Education officials said the incident was unrelated to the shooting that occurred yesterday at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, Calif.

But Maui District Superintendent Paul Brown said recent school shootings on the Mainland weighed heavily on his mind as he made the decision to close Maui High "for the health and safety of the students and staff.''

"My worst nightmare is the threat of violence. We can't second-guess it,'' Brown said.

Principal Dennis Manalili said rumors of the shooting surfaced on campus early yesterday and snowballed via cell phones and e-mail as the morning progressed.

Students were asking to be released from campus, and parents were requesting to take their children home, many of them arriving on campus for that purpose.

"As these rumors continued to spread, the anxiety among students, parents, teachers and staff began to disrupt the educational process,'' Manalili said in a statement. "Therefore, rather than let the situation escalate, we requested that school be closed."

The school's 1,700-plus students were released at about 10 a.m. Because next week is spring break, they won't be returning to school until April 2. School faculty and staff members were also released, but they are expected to report to work as usual this morning. All assignments and tests will be rescheduled, the principal said.

While officials wouldn't reveal details of the rumor, a 13-year-old freshman said she heard it was to be a gang-related shooting in a classroom building with a bathroom where students are known to smoke marijuana.

"I heard somebody was going to get shot and that it was going to be more than one person,'' said the student, who did not want to be identified.

The girl said her older brother wanted to leave campus, and she asked to go home too. Meanwhile, the girl's father, who apparently heard the rumor from another source, called the school asking that his two children be released.

"It was a weird day,'' she said. "A lot of kids were just walking off campus. I went to the office and there were a million cops there.''

She added, "I don't feel safe in that school.''

Racheal Kahalehau, a junior, said that when she saw police officers on campus yesterday morning, she thought they were responding to a drug bust or fight.

She and other students left campus on a field trip to the Maui Community Correctional Center and found out about the school closing from a prison guard after it had been announced on the radio.

Kahalehau and others said someone may have pulled off a joke to engineer a long spring break.

"Whatever goes on the Mainland, they think it's funny,'' she said.

"If they did it to scare us, they're stupid to do that,'' added freshman Cheyann Moniz, 15.

Brown said the calm and orderly campus evacuation was a successful test of the school's safety plan. Now, he said, the task for school officials is to learn as much about the incident as possible and work to ensure the school is safe when students return next month.