Wai’anae, HI

September 30, 2014

Everyday, about 2,300 people are reported missing in the United States. Here at Waianae High School, many students are unaware of a simple piece of plastic that may just save their lives. Waianae High School’s push for this material to be worn, may be cramping some student's style, but if it’s not worn more often, student's sense of personal fashion may disappear completely. Waianae is thinking about enforcing a uniform policy if I.D.s are not more visible on campus. To teens, fashion at school may be the biggest form of personal expression.

“Well I feel like uniforms will cut off our ability to express ourselves," explained Senior Wayson Josue.

Although students care about saving their free dress from uniforms, they are blinded by their looks and sightless to the meaning that I.D.’s are not made to cramp your style.

I.D.s are not just for safety, student are able to check out books from the library, as well as purchase school lunch that can help with their nutrition and concentration by silencing their grumbling tummies.

“There are some other useful things that go along with having an I.D... another one is that you can go into the school library, you could check out a book. All they need to do is just, look if you are the person whose picture is on the I.D. its useful if you decide to eat lunch if theres money in your account or if you're free and certified they just scan your I.D. check to make sure you are the person in the picture and you get your lunch money.” said Ms. Weidman, a counselor at Waianae High School.

However, in addition to these beneficial purposes, your life could actually be saved by this little piece of plastic.

“Most important purpose of students wearing their I.D.s is for safety, students with valid I.D.S we know for a fact that they belong on campus and since we have a very open campus theres many places where, people can just come in and leave campus I think its really really important to have a way of identifying who really belongs here and who doesn’t.” explained Mr. Kurose, vice principal of Waianae High School.

Day and night, people are roaming around campus. Located next to a homeless encampment, anyone could actually pay a surprise visit.

“We have parents sometimes who want to come on campus just to see if their kids are in class or not.” Weidman added. School staff enforce what the rules are and they use the I.D.’s to identify if that person belongs to this school.

Administrators are discussing a new resolution to this issue of insubordination, one that may just put students back in uniforms. Students like senior Wayson Josue are not happy about this.

“I think it would block school spirit.” he explained. These fashion killing uniforms could end the life of a free dress school. However, there is a simple way to divert this fashion disaster.

“It’s better safe, than sorry” explained sophomore Gabbrielle Galano. One student leads this fashion trend to safety, wearing his I.D. every day without fail.

“Its easy to wear an I.D.” says Josue. This schools free dress may be ended. No official say, but the best way to avoid this fashion disaster is to wear your I.D.s, it's better late than never, but never late is better.

Wai’anae, HI

September 29, 2014

Wai'anae, Hawai'i September 29th, 2014

The Hawaiian culture may still seem foreign to some, but for Keala Molina-Wilcox, it represents all that is home. Growing up, Keala was immersed in Native Hawaiian traditions. She knew the stories, ate the food, and even swayed into dancing hula.

“My sister and I danced hula. Besides hula, my grandma spoke Hawaiian, so I grew up hearing the language," Keala said.

This foundation of the Hawaiian culture turned into a thirst for more knowledge. She took four years of Hawaiian Language in high school, when all she needed was one. She then ended up majoring in Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“It was the main culture in my life, but I knew that the language part was what I was missing, so as I grew up and I moved on to college thats what I kinda immersed myself in,” she expressed.

Keala’s academic interest transformed into a career when she accepted a job at Waianae High School teaching Hawaiiana as Kumu K. She confessed, “I benefit from the culture one way or another. I feel a responsibility to be able to teach the younger generation a little bit about their culture and language.” Its here, where she believes the students will be apt to embrace their culture.

To-Hawaii.com reveals that statewide, only 0.1% of people who live in Hawaii speak the native tongue. The death of the language is a growing possibility unless something can be done to prevent it. One thing that contributes to the truth of this statistic is the misunderstanding that colleges don’t accept Hawaiian as a language.

Waianae High School college and career counselor, Theresa Sanchez, sheds some light on the situation.

“When you are looking at colleges that you need to apply for, you need to look at what the admission requirements are. [Hawaiian language] wasn't accepted before, but now its accepted in most colleges across the United States, and if you do come across a college where it is not accepted, you can always appeal a request for your credit to be accepted,” Sanchez said.

Students in Kumu’s class took this course for cultural reasons even before they knew the truth. Kailee Ke, a junior in Keala’s second period class, stated, “Although I know that I will not further my knowledge of Hawaiian in college, it's something that I want to do even if its only for a year.”

That’s where Keala dances her way in.

“Being Hawaiian, of course it's important because that's who we are. It's a blueprint to how we behave, how we think and how we act. Culture identifies who you are. It makes you separate from other people. Being that hawaii is so, we have so many ethnicities that live here. I think its important for our Hawaiian culture to know and understand who they really are."

Keala feels the need to pass that idea of cultural identity on to her students. She teaches them not to see the Hawaiian culture as separate from the modern world, but a meaningful link to a rich and beautiful past.