With two fights on or near her campus capping what appears to be rising gang activity in several Hawai'i communities, Farrington High School Principal Catherine Payne is considering banning violent students permanently.

In the past 19 months, there have been incidents of violence involving students from Campbell, Nanakuli, Kapolei, Farrington, Radford, Wai'anae and Waipahu high schools. Not all the fights involved gang activity, but they resulted in everything from school disciplinary actions to dozens of arrests and brought new attention from educators and police.

Education officials said that while violence is an ongoing concern, it doesn't mean the public high schools are unsafe.

"There were two incidents," said Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen, referring to the fights this week involving Farrington students. "But for the most part, order is the norm.

"Over the past almost 10 years, it's been relatively quiet with respect to gangs," said Knudsen. "It used to be the focal point of clashes between students, but generally that hasn't been the case (lately). But if the Farrington principal is seeing a resurgence of gang activity, that is taken seriously."

Knudsen said that both the department's safety committee and a Board of Education ad hoc safety committee have been exploring these issues, with the board setting school bullying and violence among its top priorities.

State law mandates a year's suspension for bringing a firearm on campus, but in general the penalties can be anywhere from a 10-day suspension to a 92-day suspension for other serious infractions.

Payne and other principals believe a stronger response is needed when violence does occur.

"One of the things we'll be looking at very carefully is other alternatives for students who are dangerous. And whether a big high school is an appropriate educational placement for students who engage in these behaviors," Payne said in the wake of two fights Wednesday that sent two students to the hospital — one of whom lost an eye — and resulted in the arrest of a number of others.

Payne beefed up security at Farrington by seven additional officers today, and the Honolulu Police Department increased patrols in the area. No violence was reported yesterday.

But Payne said there has been a "huge increase in gang recruitment and gang presence in the whole community from here to Waipahu to 'Ewa."

PLENTY OF BLAME

A week ago, a fight broke out after a Kapolei High School football game that involved gang members from the Campbell High School area, according to police sources, and there have been other fights in the past year between Kapolei and Nanakuli High students.

Education officials blame the violence on everything from the taunts and fights posted on Internet sites, to classic rivalries between campuses, to typical teenage disputes, to a broader social unrest in economically depressed communities that flow into negative actions on school campuses.

"In the upcoming funding round, we're really looking at trying to put more of our money toward looking at the higher-risk youth," said Jessica Kim-Campuspos, children and youth specialist in the state Office of Youth Services. The agency doles out about $7 million in grants annually to a variety of community agencies that provide services for young people.

Darwin Ching, who chairs the BOE's safety committee, suggested yesterday that principals ought to be given more latitude in how they respond to violence on their campuses.

"This year nationwide, safety and discipline has become a third issue behind funding and accountability," said Ching.

One of the issues his committee has been looking at is whether a school's reach should extend beyond campus boundaries to discipline students for off-campus activities.

"The trend is to reach out and obtain jurisdiction because we have to protect not only students but teachers, too," he said. "We don't want to wait until something like this happens."

FARRINGTON FIGHTS

Statistics on fights are difficult to obtain. The DOE does not keep centralized data on the number of serious school fights. Each school keeps its own. The only centralized statistics are the number of firearms brought on campus.

Wednesday's fights took place at a bus stop in front of the Farrington auditorium and then in the school parking lot. Payne said the first involved two 19-year-olds — not students — who had planned to meet and fight it out over a girl. A knife was involved in the fight, and one of the young men had scrapes and scratches from the knife, as well as head injuries, said Payne.

He later was taken to a hospital by friends.

The second fight occurred shortly afterward and involved gang-related friends of the first two combatants, said Payne. They were both 16-year-old Farrington juniors, she said, and it was one of these two who was shot in the eye with a BB gun.

"This came out of nowhere," said Payne. "We didn't expect it. ... There is growing gang development in the community, but on the campus it's been fairly tame. We thought we had cooled all the kids on campus."

ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

Honolulu Complex Area Superintendent Estelle Wong said the increase in vandalism and graffiti throughout the community parallels the rise in gang activity.

Wong said that even before Wednesday's fights, offering alternative education placement to dangerous students had been under discussion.

"The need is acknowledged and we are looking at options and possibilities so we can maintain campuses that are safe and still service the learning needs of our students," she said.

"It would be more positive if they could have an alternative that they can choose. Their attitude about participation in such a program would be much better. It would be a proactive option rather than waiting until something happens that requires a consequence and a placement as a result."

In the meantime Farrington has been working with the private social service agency Adult Friends for Youth with some of its students. But the agency is so short-funded and its social workers are already stretched so far, they may not be able to add new students to their client list.

"We've seen this coming for the last four years," said Sid Rosen, who heads the group. "We went through a dormant period from about 1996 to 2002 when gang activity wasn't extinct but it was quiet when we were working very heavily with the Samoan and Filipino groups.

"But I think the Office for Youth Services walked away from any kind of effort to (continue) working with very high-risk youth, so then in the normal course of events you begin to see this rise in gang activity and drug use and all the social indicators of problems."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.