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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, March 17, 2006

Charter school loses classrooms

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Waters of Life Charter School has lost its high school facility in Kea'au after a disturbance Tuesday in which three students from Kea'au High School were arrested after they entered the charter school's campus.

The Girl Scouts, the owner of the building where the charter school's high school classes are held, has withdrawn its permission to house the school, charter school executive director Jim Shon said.

"The immediate crisis is whether the students will have a school, and whether security could be involved," said Shon.

The charter school began its spring break Wednesday and was scheduled to resume classes April 4.

The schools are trying to get to the bottom of the incident, which pitted some students from Kea'au High School against some from the Waters of Life High School Campus at the Kea'au Girl Scouts Center, resulting in several alleged assaults on students and teachers at Waters of Life.

Police said three 17-year-old girls from Kea'au High were arrested. Waters of Life math teacher Julie Remington said the girls were looking for a Waters of Life student to beat up.

Remington, who flew to O'ahu to testify before the state Board of Education about the fracas, said some teachers are especially alarmed.

"Right now, our concern is getting the kids graduated and having a faculty to do it with," Remington said. "Some of our teachers won't return without security."

State Board of Education first vice chairwoman Karen Knudsen said similar incidents have occurred on O'ahu. "This is something we're hearing about a little more, so we might ask how widespread this may be," she said.

Shon, who also heads the Charter Schools Administrative Office on O'ahu, told the Board of Education yesterday there were two incidents Tuesday involving students from Kea'au High entering the premises of Waters of Life, searching for a particular student. Police were called each time.

Shon told the board that in the first incident, at about 10 a.m., three Kea'au High girls allegedly pushed past counselors, staff members and a Girl Scouts employee at Waters of Life and damaged a door in their search for a student.

In the second incident two hours later, the three girls returned, accompanied by about 20 male students. They again pushed past staff and "allegedly assaulted several students and two teachers," and damaged property, Shon said.

The 20 boys did not enter the Waters of Life campus, according to the Department of Education investigation being headed by deputy schools superintendent Clayton Fujie.

Shon asked if there were ways the charters and DOE could share security resources or work with police to perhaps rotate officers through the campuses. The DOE immediately made a psychologist available to talk with the charter school's 52 students.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.