HAAS Meeting Last Evening

[opihikao]

In the article, it states a police report was filed, a restraining order was granted (*See first link), and allegedly violated (TRO). We may well see those lawsuits forthcoming.

If the charges are false, and defamatory, well, lawsuits work both ways, I would venture to guess.

Mr. Tucker, indeed this is only one side. Waiting for the response from HAAS. I tend to believe the several children telling their individual experiences (through parents testimony) at this point. Guess we shall see.

JMO.

[Carey]

The Hawaii Tribune Herald has the story of this situation as front page in todays paper. One thing to note, in the Trib Heralds coverage, it seems that the teacher, Shannon Smith, may have nullified the agreement HAAS had by being on the school premisis during the Ho`olaulea... by doing so, she may have removed much of the union protections DOE instructors have, and may now be open for more expedient ramifications for her actions.

Although I do agree that it is not fair to judge all of HAAS on this one teacher, I would now question the oversight of all of the teachers, as, according to the paper today, this was not a single incidence, nor was it done without other adults within the classroom.

link to the Trib Heralds story:
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...-community

ADDED: According to this report, The police have been involved since January when a fellow teacher & parent filed a report. Mitch Roth is "currently looking into the allegations"...100 days and counting...perhaps this is truly the "one sided" part of the County of Hawaii...

[opihikao]

Carey, very good points. Now we know more of the situation, and hopefully resolution in favor of all the keiki is achieved. From the link provided:

(*Snipped - Bold by me)

Multiple parents stood up and recounted episodes in which they said their children were called “stupid,” told to “shut up,” or had their ears flicked by Smith. In one instance, a parent claimed, a child had his mouth duct-taped to prevent him from “whining.” “My 10-year-old was told, ‘Keep your hands under you, or I’ll cut them off,’” said parent Dan Biegler.

Board members told meeting attendees that they had largely been wrapped up in negotiations with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the union that represents teachers at the school, since the board was first notified of the allegations. “You have to understand, we have limited moves we can make,” explained board Vice Chairman Michael Dodge.

Dodge told attendees that an agreement had been reached which would keep Smith on administrative paid leave until the end of the school year in July, at which time she would no longer be an employee of the school. Smith was to remain off campus during that time.

However, parents told the board Thursday night that Smith was present at the school’s May 2 Ho‘olaulea, interacting with and touching some students. Parents claimed that administrators had been notified of Smith’s presence at the time, but nothing was done to remove her from campus.

[Guest]

This was worse than I had thought at first for it apparently was different forms of abuse multiple times to multiple children. Very sad situation happened at HAAS school, how as a community can we learn from this?. I really hope for the kids sake that they will get some counseling if needed, for these kinds of things happening at school is also a form of bullying and can be damaging to the kids psyche.
I remember about 3 years ago I had a chance to send my oldest boy to HAAS instead of Pahoa. We all got to sit in the class for a day and watch or ask questions at that time. The kids were great, very helpful and almost seemed like adults rather than children. They did not have to raise their hand or ask to go bathroom, they just up and go. Most were doing their own things for they were allowed to go further ahead as they pleased, The teachers did not want to hold some back for others. My son was already getting strait a's and had skipped a grade so I knew he was a self learner and would be fine at HAAS. I just did not feel they had the right structure or discipline to keep him on his toes. Our move was to keep him at Pahoa and not change what was working already for him. Now he is vice president and finishing up his sophomore year, he participated in sports all three seasons and maintained his 4.0 so we could not be prouder of him. P.S. Maybe what we need out here is more consolidating of our schools and keiki on one much larger campus, rather than small spread out ones designed in the 50's?. Most problems I see at the beginning of school years are when kids from Keonipoko school in Hawaiian beaches all of a sudden have to go Pahoa(plenty fights). When we visited HAAS that day we thought it was a hoali school for almost all were, at least in this grade class. Never seen so many blonds in one classroom as long as I have lived in Hawaii. Not really for special treatment, we believe in equality and would like to see most have the same opportunities or I will always choose the harder road kind of mentality for we believe it builds character. Now we feel like we dodged two bullets in our community because we pulled our boys from the Football program that looked bad long before the problems surfaced with the missing $$150,000. AND now we somehow were able to keep our boys from this nightmare at HAAS. Really parents do need to guide, protect, and make better decisions for their children, for its not the kids faults, these are adult actions. This community does not offer many positive opportunities for our Keiki, so for this to happen at school is terrible.

[opihikao]

Main stream media report: (*Snipped - More at link)

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/25480...ter-school

PAHOA, BIG ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) -
Controversy has erupted at a public charter school on the Big Island, where parents claim the administration hasn't taken enough against action against a teacher accused of abusing her students.

The female teacher had a fourth-grade class at the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science. The school's web site says it has 500 students from kindergarten through 12th grade in Pahoa.

"The abuse actually started like the first week of school," said Cynthia Palm, who had a son and a daughter at the school. "Basically she yelled at the class, yelling at them to shut up. Screaming all the time."

Parents claim the abuse then escalated.

"He was screamed at and intimidated," said David Marquis about his son's experience. "And then came the physical abuse, the hitting of the children on the head with books."

One woman has a nine-year-old son who wears hearing aids and is a special needs child.

"He was hit with an open hand slap to the back of his head in the area that he wears his hearing aids," said Deborah Isabel.

Those parents said they didn't really hear about the alleged abuse because their children were too scared to talk about it. However, some stories began to leak out about what was going on in the classroom.

"She took away their tables, their chairs, and made them sit on the floor. And that just started some kind of suspicion with some of the parents," said Palm, who took her children out of the academy. They are now being home schooled.

The teacher wasn't removed from the classroom until the end of January. By that time, at least one of the parents had filed a police report against the teacher. Palm said some of the parents plan to file a temporary restraining order against the teacher, whom they said showed up to at least one school event after she was removed.

The academy's governing board was confronted about the matter in a meeting Thursday night. However, board members said they couldn't discuss the matter because of a confidentiality agreement.

Hawaii News Now left phone messages for the teacher and the head of Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science, but received no response.


Gypsy, what a story, and well stated. Thanks for sharing it.

Lots of explaining to do here. Poor keiki. JMO.

[unknownjulie]

I have definitely seen a lot of yelling in the schools. It is unfortunately, the "status quo" here. I have not seen hitting or duct-tape.

[opihikao]

The silence here is deafening on this issue.

I'm surprised. More are upset, and debating, as to who is running for Puna council!

Amazing.


JMO.

[csgray]

Opihikao,
I think many of us are not commenting for a wide variety of reasons, including how upset we are, for some of us this hits close to home and brings up emotions we do not care to spill all over the internet. Not everyone wants to run to the keyboard when something this painful happens in our community.

I teach in a Hawaii public charter school, I know and respect many HAAS faculty, I have former students who I care deeply about who attend that school. I am saddened beyond words for everyone who has been impacted by this set of events. Hawaii schools, and charter schools in particular, struggle enough for respect as it is; something like this just makes it harder for all the educators who are trying day after day to do the right thing in their classroom. I have no personal or first hand knowledge of this case so I do not feel that I have anything constructive to add to the discussion.

Carol

[opihikao]

Carol, well said. Understood completely. Thank you. The people here in this forum are quite astute, and some are influential in their respective lives in the community. Upstanding citizens, as it were. Much like yourself.

I'm cut to the core with this, and will reign in my feelings and opinion until all facts are revealed.

Keiki and kupuna are my weakness. No one should hurt them. At all.

JMO.

[Mtviewdude]

So when are the stories of the abuse coming out. Right now it doesn't seem too different from when I went to school decades ago.