Posted on: Thursday, April 21, 2005

State pays for arrest of boy, 7

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Education Writer

A federal lawsuit over the arrest of a 7-year-old special education student last year at 'Aikahi Elementary School has prompted the Department of Education to review its procedures for handling mentally disabled students who are disruptive.

The department also agreed to pay $50,000 to settle the case.

The second-grade student, identified in court documents as "K.H.," was arrested at the school and taken to the Kailua police station last November, one day after he hit an educational aide in the face.

The arrest came on the boy's birthday, his mother said.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, charged that the school should have expected occasional outbursts and been prepared to handle them, since his disabilities had been clearly diagnosed.

The school had "a written behavioral support plan which was created for the precise purpose of responding to and controlling episodes of kicking, hitting, biting and other aggressive conduct to which K.H. is prone due to his known disabilities," according to the suit, which alleged the school violated the U.S. and state constitutions.

The DOE will update its policies as a result of the incident.

"The department is reviewing its current practices and procedures and will be providing appropriate training for its employees," DOE spokeswoman Sandra Goya said.

Raina Hockenberry, the student's mother, said she was satisfied with the settlement but remained outraged by the incident, especially because the school is generally well-regarded.

"I'm appalled by the way my son was treated," she said. "I can't believe a supposed blue-ribbon school in the state of Hawai'i would ever treat a special-needs child like that, especially on his birthday."

Her son now attends another public school and is doing better, she said.

"They have turned a very bad situation, and made school pleasant for my son again," Hockenberry said. "He was very afraid to go back. He gets apprehensive at times, but they're working through it."

Her attorney, Eric Seitz, said police officers did not handcuff the child, and immediately called Hockenberry after arresting him. The Honolulu Police Department also was named in the suit, and a settlement is pending, he said.

"Our whole approach to this was that the police made a mistake and they handled this poorly because they didn't have adequate information, but in the scope of things, we look at the actions of the police as being far less onerous than the way it was handled by the school," Seitz said.

Reach Johnny Brannon at 525-8084 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.