Posted on: Sunday, June 12, 2005

OUR HONOLULU

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The graduation for three young women and five young men at Olomana School took place behind locked doors because the students have been convicted of crimes. It was one of the most fascinating graduation ceremonies I've ever attended.

One of the girls has a great feel for the hula. One of the boys has the makings of a sportswriter.

Barbara Fuller, the teacher in charge, told the class a story about a starfish. The story goes like this: A man was walking along a beach where there were countless starfish washed up on the sand. A boy was picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean to save them.

"Why are you doing that?" asked the man. "What good does it do? There are miles of beach and thousands of starfish."

The boy looked down at the starfish in his hand and answered, "To this one, it makes a difference."

Fuller told the class, "You are our starfish. We have saved you from the beach and now you are getting ready to go back into the large ocean."

Bill, the librarian at Olomana School, acknowledged that the students who come into his library are not like those at other high schools. These come off the street, often the products of a criminal society. The most popular book is "Tattoo" by Chris McKinney, a story about life in Halawa prison.

Some of the students can read only picture books. But the comprehension rate for "Tattoo" is 90 percent to 100 percent. "When they're interested, it's not work to read," said the librarian. Another popular book is "Monster." It's about a 16-year-old accused of murder.

Make no mistake, this is a tough place. The teachers go by first names only to avoid being identified on the outside. Yet poetry is popular. "It comes from rap music," explained Bill. One popular poet is the late Tupac Shakur, who wrote "The Rose That Came From Concrete."

Bill said Shakur valued education, respected motherhood and talked about how "real men" don't run away after getting a woman pregnant.

The writing classes have produced some revealing experiences like: "My first trip. The day I got arrested I was in the cell for three hours."

Another student wrote: "I used to run away from home, drink beer and rock the bowl in Waipahu. Now I can't do any of that because I am locked up. It's really hard. From now on I will change my life when I get out of jail."

Daniel, who should be a sportswriter, wrote about the smell of a locker room: "Every time after football practice the locker room smells really bad. But it's a good smell because I know that we have just trained very hard on the field and we are ready to play anybody in our division.

"The odor of the locker room lingers there for a while. When the smell comes back to me, it brings memories of highly trained warriors that are ready to defeat any opponent."