Watch it,
kids, you’re on
Candid Campus

Nanakuli elders are
working the school to keep its
7th- and 8th-graders in line

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Nanakuli youths who think they can get away with cutting class or skipping school better think twice.

Grandma's watching. So are their aunties, uncles, neighbors and their friends' parents.

"Grandma" Agnes Cope and elders active in Nanakuli began attending school yesterday with Nanakuli seventh- and eighth-graders -- making sure they go to class, stay out of trouble and do well in school.

It's a two-year pilot project at Nanakuli Intermediate called Na Hulu Mamo Ohana Way, aimed at helping at-risk students succeed.

The project's success relies on elders and members of the community, called educational support team leaders, playing a more active and caring role in the lives of students, said Kamaki Kanahele, Na Hulu program director.

They'll sit through English and math classes with the students, do the work with them and become their mentors.

Community members will provide a component missing in the schools -- the nurturing and caring students need to become successful academically and in life, said Nanakuli Principal Bruce Naguwa.

Cope, a 46-year-resident of Nanakuli, says youths must be shown love before they will listen. She hails students in the hallways, asks them where they're headed and gets them on their way, reaching out to children before they take a wrong step.

If someone misbehaves, she will make it her business to let the parents or guardians know. Give her a family name and she can tell you what road and how many houses from the corner a student, his grandparents or great grandparents live off Nanakuli Avenue.

"When they get nuha (sulky, obstinate) and make pilikia (trouble), we go second road, third road, fourth road and go find the ohana," Cope said.

Often parents don't know if their children are actually attending class or how they're doing until they get a notice or call from the school.

Na Hulu hopes having adults on campus daily to support students without being judgmental will help reduce truancy, tardiness, absenteeism and even alcohol and drug abuse and teen pregnancies among seventh- and eighth-graders, said Kauila Clark, program coordinator.

Last year 30 of 250 seventh-graders and 60 of 260 eighth-graders failed to move up to the next grade. There were 2,400 referrals to the vice principal's office last year for disciplinary problems. Teen pregnancy among seventh- and eighth-grade girls continues to be a problem, Kanahele said.

Statistics also point to the Waianae coast as having the most babies born addicted to drugs and the most mothers between 12 and 17 who give birth to addicted babies, he said.

Eighth-graders Kaitlyn Lagrimas and Britany Edwards say any extra help for students is needed. Fellow students are flunking because they cut classes, don't come to school or don't do the work, Lagrimas said. "They only come to school to see their friends," said Edwards. Many students lack focus and have no incentive to stay in school, they said.

Na Hulu is modeled after a Maori concept Tu Tangata -- to stand together -- where community members go into the schools and became involved in their children's education.

When the program first was introduced in a New Zealand school three years ago, the rate of absenteeism and truancy was at 70 percent. Six months after community members went into the classrooms, that figure dropped to 6 percent, Kanahele said.

Na Hulu is funded by a $200,000 grant from Queen Emma Community Health of the Queen's Health System. Team leaders will track students daily and keep computerized records of their attendance and performance. The records will be available to the student, parents and teachers.

Team members also will be on the lookout for behaviors that need to be changed and deal with them right away. If students miss class or don't go to school, team leaders will seek them out and try to show by example the importance of being in school.

Project coordinator Merrie Aipoalani was once told by a college counselor she would never make it because she was female, from Nanakuli and a native Hawaiian. She proved him wrong. She hopes sharing her experiences with students will help them realize they, too, can succeed and don't have to become wards of the state. "By us breaking that cycle, we can help our children look beyond Nanakuli," she said.