School violence worries teachers

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Joyce Choy knows what it's like to be afraid in her own classroom.

And for her, a student's alleged attack recently on two women at Wai'anae High School underscores what she feels is a key issue for Hawai'i's public schools: classroom safety, and particularly the intimidation, threats and violence directed at teachers.

Choy, a former substitute teacher at Wai'anae High and now a full-time English teacher at Waipahu Intermediate, said she has endured numerous "nightmarish situations" in the face of disruptive students at both schools and likened the classroom environment at times to a "war zone."

The Wai'anae incident is just the latest among hundreds of general assaults in Hawai'i public schools every year.

It is not known how many such incidents are directed at teachers — neither the Department of Education nor the Hawai'i State Teachers Association keeps such statistics. But the HSTA and teachers willing to talk about the situation say that incidents against teachers are a problem.

Concern over violence in the schools peaked four years ago with the death of a 44-year-old cafeteria worker at Wai'anae Intermediate School after she was struck in the chest trying to break up a fight.

But a growing body of evidence suggests that the issue is as critical as ever:

• General assaults in the school system are at their highest in five years, according to DOE figures. The 974 reported assaults in the 2001-2002 school year — the most recent available — are a 14 percent increase over the 853 the year before.
• There is concern about an increase in the severity of the assaults. Lahainaluna High School counselor Robert "Bobby" Cardozo was injured so badly in an attack by two students this year that he was unable to return to work and has left Maui, according to a published report and school officials.
• And an Education Week study this year found that nearly half the responding schools in Hawai'i reported that classroom misbehavior and physical conflicts were problems — the highest rate in the nation, according to the study.

DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen denied that attacks on teachers are a significant problem in the school system and said teachers are generally safe in the classroom.

"We're pretty confident to say that the incidence of violence in Hawai'i's schools is not a major concern, although we strive to make the safety factor even stronger," he said.

He dismissed the high conflict and misbehavior data from the Education Week study as questionable and said other reports have shown that Hawai'i students feel safer than their counterparts nationally.

And he categorized the latest Wai'anae attack as "one student and one incident in the 10th-largest school system in the country." He also said it was different from other assaults because it was allegedly committed by a special education student.

But outgoing HSTA president Karen Ginoza said that makes no difference.

"Whether you are a general education or a special education student, the same rules should apply," said Ginoza, who added that the problem is the DOE is not adequately enforcing state laws that govern campus behavior.

"Teachers talk about being bitten and being hit by students," said Ginoza. "If a student goes into Longs or Safeway and behaves this way, they would be immediately arrested. And we need to see that same kind of enforcement on campus."

Walt Novak believes the situation is getting worse.

"Physical aggression at some schools is representative of a wholesale discipline breakdown," said the Wai'anae Intermediate teacher.

He has complained about abuse at the hands of students and said he has been threatened, cussed out and even struck. He also said he was a friend of cafeteria supervisor Iwalani Kaleikoa, who was killed in May 1999 while attempting to break up a fight between two eighth-grade girls at the school. The 14-year-old student who was subsequently arrested in connection with the incident was not prosecuted and her actions were ruled accidental.

Novak and Choy say the issue is bigger than some suspect because teachers who have been threatened or intimidated fear retaliation by administrators or students or both if they speak up.

"There are lots and lots of teachers who have been through this, but they won't speak for the record," said Novak.

The Wai'anae High School episode occurred May 29 when a 17-year-old boy allegedly attacked two female teachers, ages 58 and 59. One teacher struck her head on the ground after the student yanked her hair, and both teachers were kicked before the student ran away, according to police.

The extent of the teachers' injuries was not known. School administrators would not comment on the incident, and neither teacher wanted to be interviewed.

Honolulu Police Detective Tasman McKee, who investigated the attack, said the student has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault. The boy has been released to his parents pending the outcome of his appearance in Family Court.

"I would agree that there are certainly situations where teachers do not feel physically safe," said Joan Husted, HSTA executive director. "Kids throwing books, kids refusing to do the lessons, kids coming to school who have been drinking, kids coming to school who are obviously taking something — we hear far more complaints about that."

But Husted said based on preliminary estimates of new HSTA survey data, teachers in Hawai'i now devote nearly a third of their total teaching time to wrestling with disciplinary problems.

"We think it's escalating," said Husted. "Previously it was 25 percent. And we're projecting that the new figure will be ... closer to 30 percent."

Republican lawmakers plan to introduce legislation in 2004 that is designed to give teachers the authority to remove disruptive students from the classroom.

"One of the biggest problems that teachers face is that one to three disruptive students can tie up an entire classroom and keep everybody else from learning," said House Minority leader Rep. Galen Fox, R-23rd ( Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kaka'ako). He added that he was "shocked" by the Education Week report.

Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), House Education Chairman, said the DOE has a policy in place to deal with disruptive students.

"Far be it from me, frankly, to go to the DOE with a law and say, 'You shall do this in every situation.' " Takumi said. "I will trust the individual principals at every given school with a policy that's set by the Board of Education on how to deal with disruptive behavior."

Takumi said, based on what little he knows about the alleged student attack in Wai'anae, the incident was a criminal offense, not school discipline. He said he's not sure new legislation is the answer.

None of which was comforting to Choy. She said if budget constraints are such that the DOE can't afford better security to protect teachers, then the department "should at least offer teachers classes in self-defense" so they can fend off volatile students.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.