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< All Candidates Lagazo, Brianne President ⭐ PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES: Do you have ideas regarding how to provide development opportunities to students (i.e. college fairs, scholarships, and campus policies to promote clubs and student involvement)? If so, explain: Some development opportunities I would like to provide are college fairs open to all grade levels. Most college fairs where Lahainaluna offers to take and monitor students, the only students that are allowed to go are typically upperclassmen (juniors and seniors). Opening this opportunity to all grade levels would contribute to a students academic rigor, as well as guide Lahainaluna students towards a college they wish to attend or a program they wish to pursue after high school. Other events could include volunteer opportunities, such as campus beautification projects, beach clean-ups, volunteering at shelters, tutoring, and more. Allowing students to engage in volunteer opportunities will allow them to build their college resumes/work resumes, gain leadership experience, learn work ethic, and collaborate with students and adults outside of school. EVENTS PLANNING: If you were elected to student council what school events do you deem important and why? Some events that I deem important are club fairs, which allow students to explore and learn about clubs they may want to pursue throughout their high school years. It's important for students to explore different clubs to collaborate with students, teachers, and understand what contributions they can make to highlight what they are interested in--which may be appealing to colleges they wish to attend. Other school events I deem important are school/grade level assemblies, spirit weeks, and homecoming. I believe that having fun and allowing students to enjoy school is equally as important as caring for grades and focusing on classes. Providing students with fun events to unwind shows students that we care for them and wish for them to enjoy themselves during school. It also invokes a sense of pride and belonging to see students dress up and have fun with their fellow classmates. PARKING: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make on the parking and car policy? If elected for my desired position, I would want to increase faculty in the student parking lot. Many accidents have occurred, many students do not feel safe, some students are too fast getting out of the parking lot, and some parents wait too long and hold up the line. Many students who do not possess a parking pass continue to park in student parking. I believe this is incredibly unfair to those who have paid previously to get a spot, and are sometimes robbed of being able to park in student parking. Increasing faculty in the student parking lot would allow students to be and feel more safe, while faculty can keep an eye out for students who are parking where they are not supposed to. ENVIRONMENT: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make to the appearance, cleanliness, or safety on campus? If elected for my desired position, some changes I would like to make are campus clean-up activities open to students. Many jump at the opportunities to get community service hours in. Planning activities like these would also increase student participation and teach students how to cooperate well with others. Increasing trash cans in areas around campus may also prompt students to feel Safety wise, I would increase faculty in certain areas around campus during certain times. This includes the student parking lot, the cafeteria during lunch, and patrolling campus during class time to ensure students are not skipping/cutting class. Some fun activities would also include campus repainting (murals/revamps) and restoring greenery around campus, like planting native plants/flowers and yard work on areas like Boarders Field. PHONE POLICY: If you were elected to the position you are running for, how would you change our phone policy? If elected as president, if i had the opportunity to change the phone policy, I would continue to leave that decision to teachers whether or not cell phones are allowed to be used in their classroom. As I have stated, it is their classroom and I believe it should be up to teachers to decide that cell phones will assist their lesson and how they teach or if allowing students to use them is harmful to the work environment. However, I strongly believe that cell phone usage in classes can disrupt learning if students are using them ineffectively. While some students may use it for learning and personal reasons, some may use it as their personal excuse to pay no attention to teachers and what they are supposed to be learning or doing with their class time. SCHOOL LUNCH: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what would you do to improve the quality of student lunches? To improve the quality of school lunches, I believe that quantity is a big issue. Our students, many of which are athletes, require food that is substantial enough to keep them going throughout the day and throughout their after school practices. It is important that we maintain health regulations, while also increasing the proportions of the food. Many students also complain about the temperature, stating that food is often too cold and that it makes school lunches unappealing. I feel it is also important to implement local school lunches and local food dishes, as well as working with local farms and businesses. Changes like these would make school lunches more appealing to students. Previous Next

< Back Mr. Carosso Principal I met Principal Carosso at lunch around the beginning of second semester. Despite having just come back from break, he seemed like he had a lot on his plate. I was nervous interviewing the principal of our school. However, before we began, he asked me if he should be the one who “should be nervous.” This gave me a slight boost of confidence and lightened the mood. I was expecting the interview to be nerve-wracking; after all, Principal Carosso is one of the tallest people on campus and is in charge of everything at Lahainaluna. Yet, after stepping into his office and sharing a firm handshake, I came to the realization that he was just another person. For instance, our Principal also listens to music and has a favorite movie. Mostly music spanning the 70s through the 90s, Mr. Carosso’s playlist is heavy on rock and roll, like the Eagles. When asked what his Spotify Wrapped looked like, he responded that he was “too old for Spotify” and that he uses Pandora. Mr. Carosso did tell me what his favorite movie is, but he seemed unable to tell me more about that at the time. Our interview was briefly interrupted when three boys barged into his office to report something. I got the idea that his whole day was like this. After he let me back in, he just said that he likes The Godfather. Despite moments like this, Principal Carosso assured me that he liked his job. He said that he likes to work with high school students and that he thinks “kids at this age are very fun and joyful.” Specifically, he mentioned that he likes “how we are at [our] age,” an age when “we are most fun.” Mr. Carosso reflected on himself at our age. “I didn’t make the most out of the opportunities in high school,” he said. His advice to high school students? “Be confident, be adventurous, and do not be scared to chase something because you think you are going to fail.” Regardless of this, he doesn’t regret anything now because he’s doing what he loves, being a principal at LHS. He has fallen in love with the place and says he “wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” Mr. Carosso also makes sure to go to as many sporting events as he can. At these events he gets to see one of his favorite things about Lahainaluna: that we “have a lot of school pride.” For the same reason, he likes going to all our graduation days, and ceremonies. I asked our principal what he would do if he had unlimited resources. He thought hard about it and I waited a while for him to respond. But when he did, the first thing that had come into his mind was that he “would pay everyone a lot more.” “Everyone’s working hard,” he said. “A lot of our teachers would go above and beyond for our kids.” He added that he wouldn’t want our teachers having to go to a second job just to pay for a living; and with an unlimited amount of money, teachers would be able to put all their energy into teaching kids. I also asked if, with “unlimited resources,” he would do anything to the school itself. To this he said that he wouldn’t change anything. He wouldn’t try to make the school seem more modern. Our school is “unique,” he said, and he wouldn’t “want to change the feel.” Keeping Lahainaluna’s old stuff preserved its “charm and lore.” Other things that our principal thought to do with unlimited resources included finding new ways to make opportunities for the students. We should “not have the lack of resources be an obstacle,” he said. A bigger and safer kitchen for our culinary classes was another idea, as well as better transportation for students trying to get to and from school, better equipment for teachers and staff, and the money to get more help cleaning and landscaping our campus. Mia Palacio is a contributor to Ka Lama Hawai'i and the Vice President of the Lahainaluna News Writing Club.

< Back You Can't Always Park Where You Want Limited Space, Rising Frustrations, and Calls for Change Jersea Borneman Student Life March 15, 2025 at 6:43:48 PM “This campus was designed before the idea of having so many students and staff,” said Vice Principal Christopher Webber. “As we’ve grown, we just don’t have the infrastructure to accommodate everyone.” To park at Lahainaluna in the paved lot, there are rules. According to Uncle Tommy Akima, all students who park in the upper lot must have a parking pass, which costs fifteen dollars. To get this, they must present their vehicle’s registration, driver’s license, proof of insurance, and school ID. “Without a parking pass you parked on the lower dirt parking lot.” Yet, not every student who has parked on campus has had a pass. Some have parked with much less. Also, recently, parking spaces have become harder to find. Again, the main parking lot is for the drivers who purchase a parking pass. Seniors get priority for parking, but lately this hasn't been happening. “Even though I paid fifteen dollars for my sticker when I get to school sometimes there isn't enough spots,” senior Anuhea Coon said. One reason for this, offered senior Stasia Pililani, is because “a lot of sophomores are getting their licenses, and so then once they get their license, they think that they can park up top.” She thinks this is unfair and that “the freshmans and sophomores need to just stop parking in our parking spots and we'll be fine.” There is currently no requirement for where to park based on grade level. Yet, if all the spots are full, the dirt lot is an alternative. Some students may even choose the dirt lot for other reasons. An anonymous senior admitted that “when I was a sophomore and a freshman and I was driving with no license, I would park down in the dirt because I didn't want to steal a spot—If you don’t have your license you don’t have a spot.” Unlicensed students may be contributing to the fact that the dirt lot, according to some students, has also become full. Junior Giana Pogni offers another reason: “over winter break everybody got cars so now there's like ten times more cars then there were.” Junior Isabella Higgins relates the difficulty of parking now in the dirt lot since “You need to park between a lot of cars and there's usually not a lot of room.” Parking in Restricted Areas Without a pass, students should be in the dirt lot. Yet, Uncle Tommy observes that “nobody wants to park in a dirt parking lot.” Students like Coon have started to find other places to park, such as the gravel area by the portables. She says, “I’ve had to park in the dirt lot and then I've also like resorted to parking in the upper lot. Not like the staff lot but like the upper grass lot.” Vice Principal Webber has noticed students are starting to try to park in the trainers’ lot next to the trainers’ room. This has led them to close off the area. This is not the only off-limits place they are parking. “Students are taking the initiative,” says Webber, “to park just below borders field.” Uncle Tommy has seen students parking in the administration lot as well. Japanese teacher David Esselburn says that sometimes when he goes up to the library during the day, he “will see student vehicles up there.” More Cars, More Problems “It’s hectic to go out of the parking lot,” says Isabella Higgins. Webber thinks a reason for this is because “You’ll be in line trying to get out and some people will just cut in front of you.” “We don’t actually have assigned parking spaces,” Webber notes. “So the way that students park may be sort of haphazard and that might make it difficult for some kids to get in and out as well.” Junior Higgins thinks, “We need to expand the parking lot to get more parking so everyone can fit.” To this, Webber notes that “we cannot magically make more parking spaces on campus,” but he thinks that “maybe we can designate proper like parking spaces, chalk out some lines, and maybe that will have people park more orderly so that we can fit people in better.” There was a time at our school when we had this. Webber recalls, “Two or three years ago we had designated spots for each student in the student lot. You had your spot with a number and you as a senior, you could even decorate it.” Webber admits, “We have talked about maybe doing that for next year again.” Previous Article Next Article Copy link Jersea Borneman is a staff writer for Ka Lama Hawai'i.

< Back LHS History and Traditions: Coming Soon! The Lahainaluna History and Tradition section was imagind by students to be an ongoing repository of oral histories and research work about the history of Lahainaluna High School. As such, this section will host short papers about campus curiosities, ancient rumors, and distiguished graduates from the "oldest high school west of the Rockies." 1/0 Previous Next

< Back Forward > Lahainaluna vs. Leilehua Lunas Ready for Playoff Clash Against Leilehua Samantha Shibao Previous Next This week is a very special one! The Lunas are set to play against Leilehua after defeating Baldwin with a score of 7-3. Although it was a tough game, the Lunas managed to push through and make it to the playoffs against other D1 teams from all across the islands. If they manage to grab this win, it will push them up a bracket for states, and they will be up against Konawaena. Team captain, senior, Michael Rayray, stated that this game will be a “we go home or they do” type of game and that they simply have to win this. Junior team captain Joe-boy Archangel agreed and added that it is a very important game as it pushes them to the next level in the playoffs. Rayray predicts that this game will definitely not be easy. “It’s gonna be a well-fought game,” he said. “It’s not gonna be easy, but I feel like if we work together and minimize our mistakes, we can end up on top. It’s about how we start and finish the game.” Archangel also added that he anticipates “a hard time with our offense because we have a lot of packages and we do a lot of motions as well.” Yet, he added, “Our defense has been solid all year as well, so I'm excited to see their offense match up against us.” For those unfamiliar, the term "package" refers to a specific grouping of players designed for certain situations or plays. Archangel also predicted that they will win (“knock on wood”) and that “Leilehua will go back and forth. Our team has lots of heart, so in the end, I think we’ll come out with the win.” Team captain, Kawika Kaili, says the Lunas have prepared for this. “We have been watching a lot of films on them, learning what they are going to run, what formations they are going to do, and relaying that on the field, just practicing to win the game.” Collage of photos from the recent game against Baldwin Bears. Lunas won 7-3. Pictures taken by: Samantha Shibao Kaili has been playing football since he was 5 years old. He is now a senior who is notable for having played the most games consistently over his high school career. On the coming game, he thinks that “whoever makes the least mistakes and becomes the most disciplined team will win the game.” The Lunas will be playing at our home stadium, Sue D. Cooley Stadium, this Saturday against the Leilehua Mules at 6 p.m. It will be their 11th game of the season and second game for the playoffs. So be sure to come up and support our boys as they fight for their spot in the next round of playoffs! Go Big Red! Heading 6

< All Candidates Eli Hegrenes Treasurer 🟢 PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES: Do you have ideas regarding how to provide development opportunities to students (i.e. college fairs, scholarships, and campus policies to promote clubs and student involvement)? If so, explain: I plan to raise a lot of money for our student council in order to offer a plethora of opportunities to students. I want to benefit everyone in the best way possible and be able to provide the money to fund activities, clubs, and experiences that they will never forget. EVENTS PLANNING: If you were elected to student council what school events do you deem important and why? Events that I deem important are offering college information and fairs, but I also value having fun and giving the student mind a break. If elected I would try and provide enough funds for both educational and social events. PARKING: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make on the parking and car policy? I would try and provide grants and donations in order to make adjustments to our current parking system. I hope to be able to raise money not only from our community, but also outsourcing to people to ask for donations. This can help fix the current parking situation we have. ENVIRONMENT: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make to the appearance, cleanliness, or safety on campus? I would primarily focus on the bathrooms and water fountains throughout the campus. I would like to ask for funding in order to provide these upgrades to students. I believe that a clean happy campus provides a hardworking happy student. In summary if the campus looks nice, then the student body will benefit because of it. PHONE POLICY: If you were elected to the position you are running for, how would you change our phone policy? I think that our current phone policy is fine, and I believe that it is a combination of the teacher and students choice of what they do with their phone. I believe that if we can offer proper education and resources to students about what the phone does to the brain, then they will make a better choice about when and how they use it. SCHOOL LUNCH: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what would you do to improve the quality of student lunches? I would try and provide grants and money to offer better lunches as well as compensation for people with eating dietary restrictions. The meals would also be of higher quality and quantity. Previous Next

< All Candidates Grayson Guzman Vice President ⭐ PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES: Do you have ideas regarding how to provide development opportunities to students (i.e. college fairs, scholarships, and campus policies to promote clubs and student involvement)? If so, explain: Yes, I have ideas regarding how to provide development opportunities to students. One idea I have is to spread awareness using social media. I notice that most students don’t use/check their email very often, with students most of the time being on social media. We could post on our instagram story mentioning opportunities available. Another idea I have to create a healthy habit of checking emails. Some teachers do not put the morning broadcast on so students miss out on information given. We can encourage students to check their emails to find out about things to know. EVENTS PLANNING: If you were elected to student council what school events do you deem important and why? School events that I deem important are activities garnering student participation like homecoming and class/school assemblies. I deem these events important as homecoming important because it is an event that increase school spirit and introduce to the freshman what to expect at school. Also, for the assemblies we have, it helps to raise our spirit as well. PARKING: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make on the parking and car policy? The changes I would want to make on the parking and car policy are to have regular maintenance on the parking with lines being repainted. Also, I heard from students to change where the regular student drop off is, having a separate area for it. Lastly, we should better enforce payed parking to student drivers, finding a way to increase parking and decrease traffic. ENVIRONMENT: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what changes would you want to make to the appearance, cleanliness, or safety on campus? Changes I want to make to the appearance, cleanliness, and safety on campus are for the bathrooms and water fountains on campus. Regarding the bathrooms, they are unsanitary and need a remodel. For the water fountains, I have heard several students and staff alike say they don’t feel safe drinking from the water fountains and would like them cleaned. The pipes are old, which need regular maintenance, changing of filters, and cleaning done to encourage students to feel safe drinking from it. PHONE POLICY: If you were elected to the position you are running for, how would you change our phone policy? I would change our phone policy with letting teachers and their department set their own rules for their classroom. I think this would be the best policy to implement with teachers having their own rules and expectations for their students. SCHOOL LUNCH: If you were elected to the position you are running for, what would you do to improve the quality of student lunches? Things I would do to improve the quality of student lunches are to work with our whole council to improve our school lunches. School lunches are not only a matter for our grade level but everyone on campus. Previous Next

< Back Artificial Intelligence The Future is Here? Trinity Guiza Science & Technology February 7, 2025 at 5:36:28 PM “It makes my job easier,” Judd Levy, a science teacher at Lahainaluna, said about using AI to assist his teaching work. “When I'm developing lessons, I can't think of everything, but the AI knows everything.” Even so, Levy objects to students using AI as a replacement for their own work and thinks that the problem is that “we haven't taught students how to use it ethically,” and that students more often are using AI as a “cheating tool.” Coming across AI-created assignments is “frustrating,” he shared, “because I don't want to give an assignment and have to read what AI wrote, you know, from twenty different students.” Jenifer Ariemma, an English teacher, repeats this frustration. “I stand firm with my students,” she says, telling them that “I would rather them write the worst paper that was ever written as long as it was theirs.” The majority of students and staff at Lahainaluna are familiar with artificial intelligence. They all have some notion as to what they think it has done for us and for our future. Yet, many disagree on or are unsure about what that future looks like. “There is a lot of uncertainty” Vice Principal Christopher Webber thinks about AI a lot. He connects confusion over AI to the fact that “we are right at the beginning of what it might become.” “Because of this,” he continued, “there is a lot of uncertainty at school, not just our school but all schools, about how to utilize it, or if we should utilize it.” Levy says that the use of AI in schools is “a slippery slope, because the technology is changing so fast.” Despite the lack of an official policy, Ariemma says that she and others in the English Department give students a chance to redo the assignment or take a zero on the assignment. She adds that “we have a gentleman from the DOE who comes every couple of weeks telling us how important AI is and how we should have all of our students using it.” Webber claims that he isn’t sure about how AI is being used in school. “What they are using it for and how they are using it, I don't actually know. [...] It seems to be shrouded in this kind of secrecy.” But students are using it. Freshman Amaziah Irrobis noted that other students “use it a lot to help with exams and answers, but they also use it a lot to cheat.” An anonymous senior admitted that “I've used it before, mainly used it for like procrastination. I write down something fast and it writes something for me.” Many teachers assume that this is the case. Ariemma offered an example: “Right now my classes, they’re doing an assignment that's due on Tuesday,” she said as she was interviewed just outside her classroom door. “I guarantee you if I walked in there, none of them will be doing it. They’ll wait, they’ll wait until Monday night and then they go 'uh oh,' so they run it through AI. I think it’s borderline laziness.” Talaofa Sulunga, a junior, agrees, and thinks AI “is just a lazy way out for many people.” The Artificial Intelligence Race Webber has concerns that are bigger than the school. Specifically, he worries that AI is the future and that if students are not able to use it, the school is “leaving our students behind in terms of what their lives and their world’s gonna be.” While he is concerned about whether our students will need AI, he of course sees that it might be affecting our “academic rigor.” He has seen an increasing number of AI plagiarism cases, the majority coming from English classes as well as “the school’s credit recovery program, EdGenuity, where students are using AI to plagiarize their essays.” Aurora Webb, a senior at Lahainaluna, said, “I think it's awful. I think if you need to use AI to pass a class, then you should not be in that class.” Freshman Irrobis (above) has a similar opinion: “AI could help us in many different ways, but it can also harm us.” Webb mentioned that “I do think education around AI as a subject should be something people receive. We have already seen that without that sort of understanding, AI can be handled improperly.” She believes “that education should be about AI as a topic and not as a tool for other topics.” Webb agrees that AI has potential, but currently doubts students can be trusted to use it responsibly. “I think it’s really useful and 100% has a place in today's society,” she said. “But it's being used the wrong way.” “I think it would be great for analytical things,” she added. “It would be awesome if AI could do our taxes.” Given the dangers, however, Webb thinks “it should be completely banned,” or “out of the hands of the general public.” Similarly, Freshman Edger Ortiz thinks that “AI can be used to study, not used for plagiarism. You shouldn’t get a grade for something you didn’t do.” The best use for AI, Ortiz thinks, is as a tutor or a tool that will “simplify” complex ideas “to help students better understand.” Mikayla Vergara, a junior, disagrees and thinks that AI “overcomplicates the questions that it is asked. In my experience in using AI, I’ve often had to tell it to simplify the given answer in order to understand what it is trying to say.” There are other problems associated with AI. For instance, in the worst case, AI “could harm our education because sometimes it could use fake information which overall isn’t good.” Ortiz refers to a phenomenon called hallucination or artificial hallucination in which a response generated by AI contains false or misleading information presented as fact. Though many seem to share Webber’s concerns about AI’s role in the future, few know how we should be using it or doubt it is being used properly. Ariemma thinks that “at this stage of the world, where we are right now, it’s really important that we start developing critical thinking skills.” She added, “Critical thinking and AI do not go together.” Levy sees the issue differently. For him, knowing about AI is unavoidable and important. To be relevant, “Students need to know how to use it because it's going to be a part of everything they do in the future. It's gonna be everywhere.” He paints a picture for the future with the past: “There was once a time where students had to do all their math calculations by hand,” he said. “When the calculator was first invented, it was really frowned upon in school, and students were told not to use a calculator. Now it’s an essential tool that students use in school, and I think AI will be the same way, as soon as we discover how to use it efficiently and ethically.” Planning Ahead Webber is in the process of creating a new policy on AI that will be different from the DOE's current policy . “I will tell you I used AI to write the policy,” he said earnestly, “which is kinda where I am right now.” Because of how new the issue is, Webber admitted to having a hard time finding examples. “Many DOE schools that I researched simply disallow the use of AI.” The thinking behind them, he assumes, is “that students are gonna plagiarize or use it irresponsibly.” Webber said that his draft policy “seeks to be ethical” since “we want to make sure that people are not disenfranchised, that they have access to AI, but all the time keeping in mind the need to have ethical classroom experiences.” Despite these concerns, there are still hardline clauses in Webber’s policy that say you can’t use it to “take the place of original students' thought and effort.” Ariemma has other concerns. “I said in the meeting,” she said, referring to one of the meetings with the DOE gentleman (above), “that I want all of my students to write by hand, and the feedback in the meeting was that there will come a time when you won’t need to be writing anything, with your hand.” “My heart sank,” she said. “I pray that that never happens. I really do. I don't ever want to lose handwriting because that’s so unique to each of us. I may be the last man standing with all this, but I'm gonna hold on to it as long as I can until I'm told otherwise.” Previous Article Next Article Copy link Trinity Guiza is a staff writer at Ka Lama Hawai'i.

< Back The Fine Line Between Support and Pressure Parental Roles in Student Success Oliana Schur Student Life March 14, 2025 at 7:59:21 PM “They’re really involved in my academic life, and I probably wouldn’t be taking all these classes if it wasn’t for my mom,” said one sophomore student, who we’ll refer to as “Flax.” Like many students on campus, Flax admits that he owes some of his academic success to parental influence. However, this raises the question: can parental pressure sometimes have the opposite effect? The expectations of parents can give students more stress than the homework they receive from teachers. Yet, according to a 2010 study by David R. Topor, children are more likely to succeed if they have an important role model like a parent in their life. However, the study also mentions that once students establish a good relationship with their teachers, they become less dependent on parental involvement for their academic success. Because they feared repercussions from speaking out about their parents, some students in the article, like Flax above, will be given different names. “…makes me try harder” The connection between academic success and parental involvement varies from person to person. Some students feel like their parents offer them the right amount of support, while others think of their parents as controlling stressors. Junior Victoria Valdez lives in a larger family, where everyone needs to pitch in. She sees her parents as a helpful influence. “They are active with my schoolwork,” she said. “It helps out sometimes because I have younger siblings. They [her parents] help out whenever they can.” Sophomore Dahlia was unclear, saying only that her parents “heavily impact my mental well-being as well as the way I act and behave.” She appeared positive about their involvement, adding that “They reinforce my academic life.” Students like freshman Hoku could go either way on the issue. “I don’t think it would affect me too much,” they said. “At most, I would fall a little behind on English.” Sophomore Sunny Galarita, for instance, thinks parental expectations and involvement need to be balanced. She says that her mother’s influence “makes me try harder,” but if her mother was more involved, “I’d be stressed out,” she admitted. College career counselor Virginia “Ginny” Yasutake helps college-bound students succeed in high school. She spoke as a parent who has two children enrolled at Lahainaluna. “In my experience,” she said, “many students do not share their achievements or academic life with their parents. I think it is always nice when you hear about your child’s accomplishments.” Yasutake thinks that parents can improve their support by communicating better with their children: “I believe families should try to communicate better with their students as well. I am definitely guilty of not telling my children on a regular basis how proud I am of them. I think students need to hear from us too!” “…I lie to them about certain things…” While some students think parental guidance can be helpful in doses, others are less upbeat, pitting their mental health against academic striving. Senior Petunia thinks that parental involvement is “helpful in some ways,” but it comes at a price: “it also makes me feel very pressured and tends to just cause more stress.” Sophomore Lily said that if she “were to be truthful about my academic life,” getting her parents more involved “would have a negative effect on my mental health.” She described feeling strained and burdened: it would “put strain on me to push myself to my limits and die,” she said. Lily added that she fears their disapproval and their “being disappointed in me, so I lie to them about certain things in my academic career.” “As long as I don’t fail, they usually leave me alone,” said Jade, a junior. “I think it’s because they learned that I shut down when there’s extra pressure put on me. I feel like if they were any more involved than they are, I would feel a larger sense of responsibility in my work but also begin to burn out under the pressure.” Agriculture teacher Nathan Pallett emphasizes the student’s role in all of this. He explains that overbearing parents can be both helpful and harmful: “It depends on the student, though. So like if the student isn’t trying to meet their maximum potential, sometimes having a parent that’s a bit overbearing can push them to do better.” Who Is Responsible? Pallett continues, pointing to the fact that, despite student opinions, it often falls on the teacher to get parents more involved. “We could probably do a better job communicating with the parents […] but that just takes so much time. We could probably have more positive parent involvement if we put in more time to engage with them. But that’s just time, and time is hard to come by.” It all comes down to the attitude and motivation of students themselves, said Galarita. “Parents definitely help, but the student makes the choice to do homework or classwork. There are some parents that don’t really care about how their kids do in school, but that’s why it’s important for kids to be more invested in school. There’s definitely a lot of work, and it’s pretty hard sometimes, but how you approach it definitely helps you get through it easier.” Previous Article Next Article Copy link Oliana Schur is a sophomore at LHS. She enjoys surfing and environmentalism.

< Back Can we Stall Any Longer? Students Wonder When Our Bathrooms Will Become Usable Gisele Miller Student Wellness May 1, 2025 at 10:29:09 PM To students around campus, LHS bathrooms are “dirty,” “gross and unorganized,” “the most disgusting bathrooms that you can think of.” One student in particular remarked on the bathrooms as, “the single most horrific, disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.” Freshman Izaiah Kaleikini calls the bathrooms “disgusting,” and insists “I don't want to use the bathrooms here. And I bet some people actually don’t use the bathrooms here at all.” Other students mention broken locks on the stall doors that prevent privacy, unflushed toilets, trash on the floor and in the sinks—graffiti all over walls, missing toilet paper, and empty soap dispensers. While custodians do clean the bathrooms regularly, constant use by hundreds of students each day makes it hard to keep up. “Students should have clean facilities to use,” says freshman Ashlee Hufalar about bathrooms on campus. “They should feel that they’re not in an unsanitary place--just the reassurance that they won’t get, like, any germs or something.” Students are upset with the bathrooms and looking for change. But a student from 60 years ago says this is not how it used to be. “our bathrooms were clean” Sandra Braun-Ortega graduated from Lahainaluna’s class of 1964. She remembers that “our bathrooms were clean, reasonably clean. And all the stalls weren’t dirty.” But that was 60 years ago. In fact, part of being the oldest high school campus “west of the Rockies” is that many of our facilities are 20-30 years old. According to Vice Principal Christopher Webber, some buildings are even older. “We have older buildings like I-building. That building is probably 40 or 50 years old and the bathrooms haven’t necessarily been updated.” Our facilities are now old, but in the 60s, said Braun-Ortega, it was also easier to keep things clean. “If you had detention,” she said, “one of the things they (the school) would make you do is clean the bathrooms.” Mr. Webber says that this wouldn’t be an option now. “The state has decreed that that’s unfair and we can’t have students working, certainly without pay, but also if they’re underage. It’s seen as draconian if that were to take place.” Despite this, sophomore Alexa Garcia sometimes feels like she should do her part as a student and “clean it up a bit, but like, I can’t really do much either way, but just tell other people as well, like, don’t make a mess--it could just be cleaner.” Another freshman who chose to remain anonymous went so far as to say the school should cut its losses and build new bathrooms. “Burn it down, make sure there is zero existence of it and make a new one, cause you cannot save that bathroom. It’s gone. It’s so, so far gone. The Good, the Bad, and the Smelly “It smells like butt,” said one sophomore while he ranked all the campus bathrooms 1 to 11. His comment was a reference to G building which he ranked a 7. Although it is a new building, the boy’s room apparently already has a weird smell. Despite this, G-building has one of the best bathrooms with clean floors, toilets, sinks and doesn’t lack any necessary toiletries. In the final rankings, G building scored higher than 7. Generally, the scores revealed how both the girls and boys agree that R-building has the worst bathroom while G-building has the best. Girls R-Building X-Building J-Building AA-Building I-Building Construction Stadium Locker Room H-Building Cafe G-Building Boys R-Building J-Building X-Building I-Building Cafe H-Building AA-Building Stadium Locker Room Construction G-Building 1 (Bad) – 11 (Good) R-building, or the AG building, got its ranking because of how the floors are dirty. The sinks have ants crawling out of them. The toilets look too unsanitary to use. “That one is so bad. Oh that one’s terrible. Stuff all over the ground,” said one student completing the survey. “Everybody” Students understand that the causes for the state of campus bathrooms may be split between students and the school. Sophomore Shalom Rios observes that the school “doesn’t really deep clean it.” But also, she feels that “we, like, make it dirty and we don't do anything about it either…sometimes, like there’s people that don’t flush the toilet or they just leave stuff in the sink or they just don’t clean up their trash.” Webber agrees that “everybody” is responsible for the state of the bathrooms. “I think the students and the staff that use them, the custodians, the people that clean them.” Yet, he noted especially that students add significantly to the problem by defacing them with graffiti and writing. A junior, who wanted to be anonymous, agrees that students may be most responsible for the problem. The bathrooms are unsanitary, they said, “mainly because of the students who vandalize the bathrooms and like, destroy them. And also, I don't know. This campus is just not clean.” Junior Jowy Langaman thinks that student vandals are not concerned about how others feel. “The students just don't really care about it,” he said. “An endless box of money” Freshman Ashlee Hufalar thinks that “the school doesn’t have enough maintenance for the bathrooms and it’s not like cleaned as much.” Recently, according to Mr. Webber, there has been a shortage of custodians so some of the bathrooms have had to be closed. There is also the issue of vaping that occurs in the bathrooms. Students go to the bathroom and do all sorts of things from vandalism, to skipping class, to doing illegal activities such as vaping. This creates an uncomfortable environment where students don’t feel safe and clean. Vice Principal Webber explained that “If something’s vandalized then we do fix it. But we don’t have any plans right now to do major bathroom overhaul in terms of getting new facilities like sinks or toilets.” The school’s budget is stretched thin, however. More important expenses such as teacher salaries, textbooks, sports, events like dances and assemblies take priority over renovating the bathrooms. “If I had an endless box of money I found next to the road,” said Webber, “I would want to change some of the sinks in a few bathrooms and some of the tile work in need of attention.” Webber had sympathy for students. “Bathrooms should be clean,” he said. “They should be sanitary because that is not only what the students deserve, but I believe it’s something that has to happen because we don’t want to have students use a restroom that’s not clean or hygienic.” “Is that what they think of you...” If he could fix this, freshman Izaiah Kaleikini said he would “change the whole restroom so it would be all fixed. Like the toilets, the sinks, clean floors instead of mud and dirt—rearrange it and everything.” Rios would “make it cleaner because sometimes there’s people that don’t even wanna go to the bathrooms because they get disgusted.” Fewer students talked about the bathroom locks. One junior, for instance, said she would “change the locks on the bathroom in the stalls because they’re all broken and literally, like in one of the bathrooms, my friend literally has to hold the door close for me. And also, we need toilet paper because there’s no toilet paper in any of the bathrooms right now.” A freshman who wanted to remain anonymous pointed to another problem: vaping. “Everytime I walk in,” they said. “It’s like smoke clouds.” Mr. Webber talked about this, saying “We obviously can’t put restroom cameras in restrooms, that’s illegal.” But he was also “concerned about the amount of vaping that I’m told goes on in some restrooms. I’m trying to get on top of that as well.” Braun-Ortega couldn’t believe that the school was letting students use bathrooms in such a poor state. “If they let you guys use those kinds of dirty bathrooms,” she said, “is that what they think of you, you know? Since you're just high school, you don't matter? That’s what it sounds like to me.” Previous Article Next Article Copy link I am currently a Freshman at Lahainaluna High School. I am interested in a lot of things such as painting, music and surfing. I’m focused on my honors classes. I’m a dedicated student and received the Samuel Kamakau Excellence Award. Although I’m focused on my academics, I still like to have fun with my friends and family. Surfing is one of my favorite hobbies because it allows me to be in the ocean and have fun. Born and raised in Lahaina, I love the ocean and living on Maui. For the future, I want to be a lawyer and go to NYU for college.

< Back BJ Alvarez Head Custodian He’s a chill man riding around in a golf cart, in a red t-shirt, blue work jeans, work boots, camo hat, and sunglasses. He's calm and familiar. He’s BJ Alvarez, the Head Custodial Supervisor at Lahainaluna High School. Since 2009, the year he began working at Lahainaluna, Mr. Alvarez has woken up before his children. He now has three: 3, 6, and 11-years-old. Two of them, his 6 and 11-year-old, are enrolled in Hawaiian immersion. As Head Custodian, Mr. Alvarez directs the custodial crew of 6 who maintain the cleanliness and sanitation of our school. When he’s not at work, he’s probably at the beach, a barbeque, or both. He’s also a musician and enjoys the fluid and laid-back feeling of island reggae music. For Alvarez, playing music “helps with coping.” In turn, listening to music “helps other people cope.” Alvarez described music as “medicine.” Alvarez is the keyboardist for the local band, Lahaina Grown. Their self-titled 2005 “Lahaina Grown” took on a new significance for Lahaina locals after the recent wildfire. Alvarez grew up listening to Lahaina Grown and is now one of their newest members. Alvarez said that, to him, “Lahaina Grown” “represents home and the struggles people are going through. If you listen to the “ Plantations ” song in the Lahaina Grown album, you can see that this song still has meaning in current problems, we are still fighting our fight.” His favorite song to play is “He Iwi” from the same album. Mr. Alvarez has a few gigs lined up with them for graduation parties, so if you want a sick graduation party when you graduate, then try getting Lahaina Grown to play. In 2021 Alvarez received the Kimo’s award for his outstanding work managing the cleaning and sanitation at our school. He was also acknowledged for his positive attitude, hard work, and for caring for the community. He graduated in 2004 from Lahainaluna, where, according to him, he was just a “normal local boy, you know, getting into trouble now and then.” He remembered two teachers from his school years, Mr. Fujii and Mr. Pizano, who were both part of the SMC (Special Motivation Center) for students who misbehave. SMC was before the ALC (Alternative Learning Center), a program designed to promote the success of at-risk students. The SMC program was housed in P12. Alvarez claims he “never got bad enough” to advance to the ALC program. That’s probably because Mr. Fujii was “a scary guy.” Despite that, he still remembers his number. When asked about the students in our school and if they are respectful, he said “they're awesome, but you will always have a few disrespectful ones now and then who make a mess.” This just makes more work for Alvarez and his staff who are also required to handle the landscaping on campus. Between this chore, he said, in addition to “cleaning the bathrooms, landscaping, and irrigation, there isn't enough of us to pick up after the disrespectful students.” He proudly said that this school is one of a kind and he wouldn't change a thing, but he wouldn't mind having more custodial staff to maintain the school. Speaking as a former student and an employee, Mr. Alvarez has a message for current Lunas: “try and be nice to one another, you might not know what they are going through. Do the basic things like cleaning up after yourselves and respect the rules like no eating in the classrooms, that's just more trash in the rooms.” The next time you see Mr. Alvarez or any other custodial staff around campus don’t forget to say “hi.” Trinity Guiza is a staff writer at Ka Lama Hawai'i.

< Back Students are Feeling a Chill What Lunas think about the possibility of immigration officers on campus. Trinity Guiza Politics April 30, 2025 at 10:58:07 PM On February 4th around third period, an Instagram post created by a student at Lahaina Intermediate spread through our school: “ICE immigration is at lis today and are supposed to come up here to lhs tomorrow. don't get deported” (sic). The caption appeared on top of an unrelated image: a glass cylinder sliding away from a student’s hand across a counter in a science class. The message was quickly dismissed by some as entirely fabricated. Yet, many were concerned and still are. “I heard a rumor about ICE going to lis but I don’t know if it was actually tea or not” said a sophomore who chose to remain anonymous. They will be referred to Anna below. “The scary thing,” Anna said, “is that it’s easy to believe something like that can actually happen because it is something that is happening on the mainland. I think we’re lucky to live in Hawaii where we aren’t as affected but I definitely worry about my friends and family on the mainland.” Recent events suggest that these worries might come closer to home than Anna and others may think. In March, an elementary student was removed from Konawaena Elementary in an immigration operation. The boy's father was detained due to immigration violations. With no one to pick him up, officers delivered him to his father. To concerns in the community, Lucia Cabral-DeArmas was sure to mention that “the two were never separated, other than during school hours.” Principal Richard Carosso sent an email around this time containing state guidelines for responding to ICE on campus: politely inform them that they are not allowed access to any information or room and call and wait for an administrator to handle the situation. What is ICE? According to the US Immigration and Customs Website (ICE), the agency’s mission is “To Protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.” Students and teachers shared different impressions, however. History teacher Ruth Mathis described ICE simply, as “an immigration system that gets people without their own proper documentation, and they send them back home.” “It’s a federal agency that investigates people if they are here in the country illegally,” said Junior Aleksandr Lucas. “Search their background and identify them. Eventually arrest them, interview and most likely deport them.” “It’s a government group coming and taking illegal American citizens of this country,” said Koryn Moury. “Their job is to find some illegal immigrants,” offered Science teacher Jacquelyn Ellis. ICE will “detain them or find out any more information about them and then they help with the deportation part of it as well.” A bit different, math teacher William Tatro thinks ICE’s primary focus is on “people who are convicted or charged with severe criminal activities.” “It's a private space” Talk about immigration on campus comes after Donald Trump’s recent executive order allowing immigration officers to conduct enforcement actions in or near sensitive areas such as medical facilities, places of worship, and schools. Following these announcements, Maui teachers looked for guidance on what should be done if ICE agents come to campus. The Hawai’i Teachers Association (HSTA) coordinated an information session with the Maui immigrant advocacy group, Roots Reborn, at Kulanihako’i High School in February. Leading the session was Aparna Patrie, an immigration attorney on Maui who works closely with the organization. “These are folks who are really important and essential to the fabric of our community,” said Patrie, who understands that a large percentage of Maui is foreign born. “They are terrified, and we've seen folks be afraid to get health care, afraid to go to school, afraid to go to church, afraid to go to the store and it's really unfortunate.” Ellis was one of several teachers who attended the information session. Afterward, she said that it was “useful” and that “it just helps you know what your rights are, because even immigrants who are here, not legally, have rights through our constitution and that's an important part of our nation.” Reflecting on what she had learned, Ellis described what she would do it ICE came to her classroom. “I would tell them that it's a private space. They cannot come in here and they need to go to the front office with any of their questions. I would never tell them a single thing about a single student in my classroom” Carol Holland, a History teacher at Maui High, also attended the info session. According to Holland, she would go to extreme measures to protect her students such as locking them in the bathroom to protect them. “The bathroom is a private space,” said Holland. “They cannot get into it without permission, so I will squeeze them all in there in my personal teacher bathroom, lock the door, slide the key under the door so it's inside the bathroom, so there's no way they can get in there.” “I would just wanna see their papers [warrants] and examine it,” said History teacher Ruth Mathis at the session. “People need to be educated in here, and you can’t come to my room. You can't take a child out of this room.” On the possibility of ICE agents on campus, Tatro, who was not present at the info session, “would have to ask them ‘did you go to the administration first?” However, he added that there are situations in which you might want ICE agents in your room. Tatro painted a scene in which there is somebody “holding somebody hostage or somebody’s in here with a gun, threatening us. I’d want them to come in.” Yet, he circled back, noting that “if somebody comes in and it's not that threatening a situation, I would say ‘did you go to the administration first?’” He insisted that, minus the hostage scenario, he would “be a little bit uncomfortable with that particular circumstance.” “I Know My Rights” In a hypothetical situation if ICE were to arrive on campus, Principal Carosso said, he would “not give full and unfettered access to our campus.” Instead, in accordance with state policy, he would hold them at the admin building and “call our superiors, our complex superintendent.” It is likely that the majority of students on campus, like Moury, “wouldn't know what to do.” Junior Angel Sana says that she has “only heard of ICE through online. I have never seen them in real life, which I would be afraid to.” “I wouldn't say anything,” said junior Val Medina-Tellez. “As somebody whose parents immigrated here, there would be no point in saying anything. They would automatically assume you are illegal, [and say] ‘I'm gonna detain you.’ They wouldn’t actually care.” Some students were more assertive. “I know my rights, I would only say what is needed to say and stay silent,” said junior Aleksandr Lucas. “I would never help an agency that does horrible stuff to innocent individuals that only try to make their own lives and their children's lives better.” “For some reason citizenship doesn't mean anything to them.” said freshman Mele Faleta. “There are many requirements that have to go with living in the US” yet “people still don’t think that it's enough for people to stay here, then i think maybe just get something else to worry about.” Dezmond Jace “Dezzy” Longgay, a senior, said “I'd actually lowkey be afraid.” The reason he’s afraid is “because of the fact that even though I am a United States born citizen, because of my race, I will be deported back to the Philippines.” Longgay believes the possibilities of ICE coming to camps are high because “Hawai’i is one of the well-known diverse states in the U.S., other than like California.” Since we're all isolated on one small island Longgay thinks “they might see it as an advantage to find people.” “They're clearly not looking for criminals” Tatro believes that there are people who come to “destroy” the country he loves. He mentioned how in the last four years crime rates and violence have risen because of illegal immigrants. “I'm talking about the violent illegal immigrants,” he said. “I’m talking about the ones that have a history of crime.” Offering an example, he encouraged me to imagine “a group of individuals from a country that is in conflict with us, and you see single men 26 years old with their backpack and their jeans and their sneakers, their $200 sneakers. You wonder what they're coming here for–especially when you see many who look like this, no family, just themselves. Charged with various heinous crimes, you know what they're coming for?” He answered his own question: “they're coming here to bring destruction and chaos to our country.” “ICE in the past, or at least the last administration was supposed to be just targeting the top people with any criminal records, right?” said Ellis. “If Donald Trump is letting them come to schools, they're clearly not looking for criminals. They're looking for any and everyone.” Holland (who said that she would lock her students in the bathroom), agrees. I sat with her in a nearly empty Kulanihako’i cafeteria as teachers had begun to leave, most of their questions answered and some of their anxiety eased. Soft spoken, yet bold and confident with her words, Holland talked about this common connection between crime and immigration. “Less than one percent of the crime in this country is committed by immigrants” she insisted. “So the statistics and the facts don't back up that.” referring to others opinions on immigrant crime rates. According to a 2024 report on crime rates in Texas, a border state, the National Institute of Justice found that immigrants did in fact have a lower crime rate than citizens. Using FBI data, the American Immigration Council also notes that the idea that immigrants bring crime to America is a myth. The results from the population data in relation to crime rates showed “no statistically significant correlation between the immigrant share of the population and the total crime rate in any state.” They conclude that: “higher immigrant population shares are not associated with higher crime rates” Sana sees some of this and thinks that ICE is “sending people home where they are from because of their colors or race.” Yet, she still thinks that “some immigrants did come here without papers and still yet committed crimes, including rape, murder, theft, and other crimes. I would be very much happy if they sent those people who committed crimes.” Sana added, however, that, “for others who came here with papers and have the right of residency, and yet still getting sent home is far too much.” “I think that it is being used to push certain agendas and deporting people like Kilmar Garcia who have little to no criminal record,” said Anna. “To me it shows that the government doesn’t need a reason to take someone you love who might not be a white person and send them to a federal prison in a whole other country.” Lucas thinks ICE “has really turned into a whole racist organization,“adding that it’s “despicable and shameful to the country.” Ellis thinks that ICE “should never be a worry for these kids who are at school to learn. It should be a safe space.” “I feel like ICE shouldn't even exist,” said Holland. “The whole principle of the country of America is built by immigrants, so the fact that a bunch of xenophobic old men are trying to hold onto their privilege by implementing immigration policies is an affront to everything this country stands for.” Mathis offered similar sentiments. “It's always been discriminatory from the beginning,” she noted. “[N]ow the situation has changed in the country where the minority groups–they come together to become the majority, and the people who are the majority now they become the minority. It's the fear, the fear that all these people would come together and maybe they will take over.” Angel Sana is a junior who thinks the situation is “messed up.” For Angel, ICE is just a group trying “to take advantage of humans that are not Americans.” They “do whatever they want,” Sana continued, “but they do it in their own way. They don’t follow the rules.” “Honestly because they put a bunch of racist, bigoted people in charge and we’re just seeing the effects of our country’s ignorance,” said Anna. “It’s important to understand the impact that they have on our communities and the actual threat that they pose,” she said. “I have friends and even family members who are immigrants who are worried about this kind of thing and it’s horrible to see.” “I think everybody wants it good for the country” “I think everybody wants it good for the country, so nobody is gonna take over, so let it be cool on immigration and encourage ingenuity of the immigrants," said Mathis, who offered a history of immigration in America that “dates back to the coming of the settlers. Everyone that came from Europe, especially the United Kingdom, were immigrants.” “Immigration is very important. We have to support it and not discourage it. Because that's how we got all these brains that we have, all the inventions, everything. It's immigrants' knowledge that built this country and you can't do away with immigration.” Mathis went on: “These children, one of these children, they could help you tomorrow. That's the blessing of immigration. We all have different skills. So no ICE person can come to my door and take anybody.” Holland hoped that our generation “would live in a world where you didn't have to fight these struggles anymore.” She said “you guys are gonna have to stand up. You're gonna have to resist, you're gonna have to push back against tyranny, against authoritarianism. Against the rise of fascism again.” “It's time for people to stop being ignorant about important issues like these,” said Lucas. If you are feeling distressed about current events, the Ka Lama staff recommends you seek out your grade level counselor. Previous Article Next Article Copy link Trinity Guiza is a staff writer at Ka Lama Hawai'i.