Legislators push school security
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Reports of intimidation and violence against Hawai'i teachers prompted House Democrats yesterday to tout a $2 million-a-year program to improve school security by putting safety managers on 70 campuses.
A story in Sunday's Advertiser detailed how teachers are threatened and even struck by unruly students.
Democrats say they will ask Gov. Linda Lingle to keep intact the expansion of a program approved last legislative session that provides a retired police officer with at least 20 years of experience to secondary schools for security and training.
A pilot program started in 23 O'ahu schools in 2000, but it ends this month when the fiscal year comes to a close.
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a), said lawmakers approved $2 million for each of the next two fiscal years to keep the safety manager program alive and expand it from the original 23 schools to 70 schools statewide. That would cover the bulk of the state's more than 85 secondary schools.
"The safety managers are expected to be troubleshooters in the areas of school safety," said Greg Knudsen, Department of Education spokesman. "They're able to address whatever concerns the school has in terms of discipline or violence."
But Saiki noted that Lingle did not include money for the program in her executive budget. Lawmakers restored it, but now Democrats are concerned that Lingle could either restrict the money, reduce it or line-item veto it altogether. Monday is the deadline for the governor to declare her intent to veto.
Spokesman Russell Pang said the governor has not yet decided what to veto in the budget, or whether to veto anything. "The budget is still under review," Pang said.
Republican lawmakers plan to introduce legislation in 2004 that is designed to give teachers the authority to remove disruptive students from the classroom.
"We did something this year that is ready to go into effect July 1 assuming the governor signs it," Saiki said. "The Legislature did attempt to be proactive on this issue."
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.
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.
The DOE has said there is not a pervasive atmosphere of violence in the state's schools, though.
"It's not that on occasion things don't happen," Knudsen said. "But to paint the entire system as having a school violence problem is really unfair. We all know that discipline is something that needs attention and that respect for teachers is sometimes lacking."
Knudsen said that overall, teachers and students feel safe on DOE campuses.
Still, the DOE has asked for money to continue the safety manager program, saying it is an important resource for school officials and helps to improve campus safety.
Safety managers are supposed to help schools with crisis management and response plans, train school security guards, investigate school crimes, counsel students and serve as a liaison to local law enforcement agencies, among other responsibilities.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
