Refining Wai'anae

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  Wai'anae, Hawai'i
  December 18, 2014
  
  Waianae High School (WHS) is infamous for it’s history of on campus violence.
  
  “We are saddled with an image that outsiders have of us as a place where it’s rough and a place where sometimes not such good things happen. We who live here know that’s not true all the time,” Waianae High School Principal Disa Hauge said.
  
  While that stereotype doesn’t apply all the time, it still has a large impact on the school. According to WHS Dean of Students, Dean Shimada, there are about 182 fights per school year, which averages out to one fight per day.
  
  “Most of the times, it’s just typical injuries from a fight; bruising, cuts, bleeding. The ultimate danger is that someone would get seriously hurt or fatally hurt. Luckily, we haven’t had that,” WHS Vice Principal Ryan Oshita explains.
  
  Despite all of the negativity, Waianae High School is doing something to change their image.
  
  “Waianae High School has an image of itself, that is very proud and very connected to where people came from and this land that we live on,” Hauge stated.
  
  According to the WHS student handbook, fighting is a class-A offense that may result in ineligibility of the violator to participate in co-curricular activities.
  
  In just 20 years, there has been significant improvement.
  
  “When I first started working here which was back in ‘94, ‘95, we had huge riots where a mass of kids would be running, chasing each other, trying getting into fights...But since then, it’s died down a lot,” said Oshita.
  
  Hauge knows that things didn’t just get better. New rules and staffing adjustments had to be implemented in order to make a difference.
  
  “The role of the school is to increase the number of ways we can solve conflict without getting into violence. what we did this year was we reorganized the counseling department. Everybody meets every week and we talk about which kids are getting along, which kids are aren’t getting along and we are trying to be there for students because all students want to learn, they want to do well in school, they want to make their families proud of them. So we are trying to be there as a resource and be out there so that students feel they have someone they can go to.”
  
  This year, the administration has made great efforts to improve the Waianae High School increased the amount of security guards on campus, implemented a locked gate procedure, a new attendance policy, and alternative learning programs that help keep repeat offenders out of the general classroom.
  
  “I can tell you I’ve lived here since like 1956. And the threat of violence is way lower than it used to be,” Hauge said.
  
  Although Waianae’s image isn’t immaculate, they are doing their best to improve it. They want to make school as safe as possible so students can focus on graduating and following their dreams.

Looking back

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"It's pretty amazing how much the violence in Waianae High School has decreased."




Jaena Campos, Photographer / Reporter

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