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< 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

< Back The Digital Leash Is Location Tracking a Sign of Trust or a Tool for Control? Ashlee Hufalar Student Life “When we got together, he was like, ‘oh, you want to have one too?,’ And I'm like ‘sure’,” says sophomore Hanan Oleiwan, explaining how she and her boyfriend began to use the Life360 app to track each other’s location. “It was first when we were [band] officers, they made a Life360 for us to join so that they'd know where we are.” Sometime after Oleiwan and her boyfriend became “official,” he suggested having a private circle just for them. “It was like a random decision,” she said. Life360 is a real-time location tracker with over 200 million downloads worldwide. Simply having the device with the app on you allows it to follow your every move. Whether you’re walking, running, driving, or even biking—Life360 detects it and puts a little icon beside your profile for others in your “circle” to see. It’s not unheard of for teen couples to use such apps to share their location. While Life360 is among the most popular, other apps include Apple Find My, iSharing, and even an Android app called Couple Tracker. Social media apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, and even location-based features on other platforms also have tracking features. While Oleiwan mentioned that her situation was simply a “random decision,” the question remains: why would couples share their location in the first place? “... you can keep track…” “I feel like it does have an effect,” says freshman Alejandro Baldez, who shares his location with his partner. He was the one who suggested it, he said, reasoning that it has made him feel closer “because, you know where they are, and that way, you can keep track or just make sure they're safe.” Oleiwan also sees the value of couples sharing locations for safety reasons. While in her case, doing this doesn’t exactly make her feel “closer” to her partner—explaining that “it's just there”—she points out that “couples might want to share their location with their significant other to make sure they're, like, okay and stuff.” “My lady and I share our location,” said John Borge, a U.S. history and participation in democracy teacher. He attributed this decision “first and most importantly” to the fact “we obviously have nothing to hide.” Knowing when his wife gets home and when he needs to leave school are just a few things he uses the app for. It “makes life much much easier,” Borge added, explaining that location tracking helps him juggle family responsibilities, especially with kids. Though the circumstances of high school couples are a little different—it is almost unheard of for them to live together with a family of their own—safety doesn’t seem to be the only appeal of having your partner's coordinates. Erica Domogma, a sophomore, doesn’t use the app herself, but she thinks that its primary value is “To know if they're cheating.” Junior Kaliyah Cutty strongly agrees, saying location tracking lets couples “see if they're like...I don't know at somebody else's house or something.” Cutty offered a short anecdote about a situation she heard of, where “this guy would have his location off when he was on island, but anytime he'd go off island he'd feel comfortable enough to turn it on.” In her perspective, she thought “the fact that he felt the need to turn it off when he was home was a little bit concerning.” “...seems like the couples don't trust each other..” While location tracking is more common with couples to ensure safety or reassurance, for some, the expectation of openness doesn’t end there. Sharing passwords, whether it’s for their phone or social media account, “is also very common,” says Cutty. “For the same reason-–like cheating-–you can access their phone and see who they're contacting and all that.” Domogma suggests that in a lot of cases, password sharing could actually lead to suspicion. She described a scenario where she might like a guy's post and her significant other sees this by logging into her account through her password. “He's gonna assume, ‘Oh, why you like that post? Are you cheating on me’.” Sophomore Tia Faiva mentions that some “people nowadays think if you don't do that (allow your partner digital sharing access), you're not really trustworthy.” She admitted that the reason she started sharing her location and accounts with her partner was only because “he betrayed my trust” “It seems very controlling,” said vice principal Nicole Heinlein. “It seems like the couples don't trust each other, that they want to check each other's messages and notifications.” “I would think,” she concluded, “that you wouldn't check each other's messages if you trusted each other.” Heinlein isn’t the only one who sees this as eroding rather than creating trust. Oleiwan mentions that she’s seen a lot of instances on social media where one person is on their partner's account, “opening every single message that they had.” “It would definitely cause a bunch of arguments, and some of them even did break up.” An anonymous junior shared that a couple sharing an account had once led to a serious misunderstanding. “Someone hacked into my [instagram] account and messaged my friend something insulting,” she explained. Her friend's boyfriend saw this and misunderstood the situation, texting an entire paragraph and calling “me out for insulting his girlfriend, even though it wasn’t me.” “It’s done and over with,” she said. Although, she mentioned it was frustrating and made it difficult for her to properly communicate with her friend, since she had already sent a message explaining that someone hacked her account before her boyfriend tried to intervene. On another note, sharing accounts could be used in a healthy way. “I know a couple that does share accounts,” says sophomore Kristina Meguro, who explained that it’s a necessary situation: “Since one of them lives in an area with poor connection, the partner is able to message for the person.” “...stalker style…” Aria Abut, a senior, thinks that shared accounts and location sharing between couples looks “a lot like paranoia.” “I do know that some couples like to do that, um, to ensure that their partner isn't doing anything weird, but, um, it feels kind of unsafe in a way.” While not in a relationship, she mentioned that she’d be okay with her “hypothetical partner “ looking through her phone with permission, though she feels her trust would be destroyed if they went through it without telling her. “I personally take my privacy very seriously.” “If you were obsessively checking your partner's messages,” said Heinlein, “I would think that that would be unhealthy.” PE teacher Ms. Watson shares similar views when it comes to location sharing. “If you're just trying to figure out where they are, perfect. But if you're constantly tracking them, like you know, stalker style where you're trying to figure out where they are every second of the day. Then that's kind of taking it a little overboard.” Senior Lawakua Haia-Shim, who doesn’t share passwords or his location with his significant other, says he's willing to, though he acknowledges that there comes a point where it crosses the line. “I don't think it’s comfortable if she checks my location status like every what, 30 minutes to see what I'm doing,” he said. Faiva also thinks that there’s a high risk in having constant access to each other's location, statuses, and accounts. “I think it can make them overthink. Makes them more possessive. Toxic, as people say.” An anonymous sophomore recounts a time where their past partner “would keep constantly checking my location.” And at times, when their partner saw they were home, “he thinks that I'm not busy when I'm really doing my work and then keeps on messaging me even though I asked that I needed space.” Frustrated at the distraction, her partner would insist by saying, “but you're at home. So why can't you just have the time to talk to me?’” “...you don't have to share everything.” In today's digital world, students are navigating a lot of things online, especially through social media influence, comments Borge. “We really don't know fully the extent to which and how bad social media is damaging Gen Z, the first generation to grow up with unbridled access to social media.” Oleiwan sees a pattern in the need to know everything about a partner and the surveillance that comes with constant social media use. “They see people on their social media sharing everything with their friends or partner, and they're like oh that's the norm then we should do it too.” Cutty added a point about the impact of “doom scrolling”: “you'll always find a cheating scandal or story on social media. And I think that makes people worry.” Borge advises that students should “develop healthy habits on how to perceive the information you're seeing on TikTok” or other social media. “Talk about it. Make sure you're both comfortable with it. And find a happy balance. You don't have to share. Like I said, you don't have to share everything,” says Watson. For those that want privacy and prefer not sharing these things with their partner, Faiva states “it should be respected. 'Cause I don't know, what if I don't want you seeing where I am and what I'm doing? Even if I'm not doing anything wrong, why do you need to know? Why is that in the way of our trust?” “I mean, you might be in a committed relationship, but you're not married or, you know, finances that are tied together,” says Heinlein. Rather than sharing things like passwords, she highlights that “it's much healthier to just have open conversations with each other and to be honest with each other and not hide things from each other.” Many students think the same; it’s all about open conversations and mutual respect for one another. “It's just communication. Just talk to your partner. See what boundaries you guys want to set when it comes to social media and your phones and all that,” said Cutty simply. Previous Article Next Article Copy link Ashlee Hufalar is a sophomore and a staff writer for Ka Lama Hawai'i.

< Back Do I Have Your Attention? Why students can't put down their phones. Keyla Jimenez Student Life September 5, 2024 at 3:39:11 AM A teacher is talking and the students are zoning out. Most of them are on their phones. Some might argue that as long as they are getting their work done, there’s really no problem with this scenario. You at least wouldn’t expect students to disagree with the idea. Yet, many of them do. Senior Zhi Clark admits that easy access to social media leads to procrastination. “I feel like once I get on my phone,” she said, “I could scroll for like hours.” Sophomore Jaelyn Galasinao also regrets the effect of phone use on her studies, saying that, without the distraction, “I could have done my homework this weekend…so much earlier.” Senior Kamaile Kulukulualani thinks that phones prevent kids from “getting a full education.” Confidence and Multi-tasking According to a 2022 survey, 41 percent of Lahainaluna students felt that they had no problem staying “quite focused,” despite sometimes being in situations with lots of distractions. Yet, 47 percent said that sometimes they were unable to “pay attention and resist distractions,” and 30 percent admitted to “frequently” or “always” “waiting until the last minute” to complete their assignments. Something is distracting LHS students from their work, though somehow they feel good about their ability to tune out those distractions. Danial Felisoni and Alexandra Godoi argue that students may be too confident about their ability to simultaneously scroll and stay on task as they “often overestimate their ability to multitask, which could eventually lead to academic underperformance.” As a result, when “cellphones are commonly used in class for purposes unrelated to the discipline, it is likely that students may be distracted during lectures or activities.” Addiction While students are generally aware of the problem, they nevertheless find it difficult to put their phones down. As Venice Gallegos describes it, “I think social media is just, like, a really easy way to get stimulated quickly, so when you’re not on it, you can kind of miss that…and have like, withdrawals.” Similarly, sophomore Ariana Lara Rodriguez stated, “When I’m in class, all I think about is watching Netflix and finishing my series or playing dress to impress.” Jack Pope, a new English Language Arts teacher at LHS, says that grabbing a student’s attention is “a problem that teachers have been dealing with since the beginning of time.” Part of what makes this problem difficult now, says Pope, is “the accessibility of having it (the distraction) right in your pocket.” “You do get a lot of that dopamine rush from getting on your phone,” Pope said. “The attachment is something that’s very difficult for kids, for teenagers, to pull themselves away from.” English Language Arts Teacher, Ryan Granillo, has taught at Lahainaluna for 22 years and says that he has noticed a change. “I would really say that once cell phones became prevalent in the classroom, it became really difficult for the students to manage both classroom instruction and discussions and like the desire to be on their phone,” he said. “How many TikTok videos can you go through in like, five minutes?” he added. “They might not think it’s a big deal because it’s only five minutes, but then they just, it’s that addictive quality that makes it really bad.” He added, “It doesn’t help that there’s no real policy, school-wide policy regarding use of phones in the classroom.” Granillo states, “Everywhere you go, adults, kids, everybody in between has them (phones) out all the time, and even to the point where students do their classwork on the cell phone. And so in that regard, you have to, kind of, as a teacher, you just kind of deal with it, but it’s never going to go away. Cell phones are part of our lives.” Annika Yucua thinks that social media can affect you somewhat but that it “is honestly not that bad of a problem.” Taking that idea further, Kimberly Hernandez says that social media is actually of help in a school environment and claims that “you can use social media for, like, many things. You make projects about posts and you just look at the post like to see, to give you an idea.” It’s Me, Hi, I’m the Problem Jack Pope notes that the problem doesn’t just lie with phones since “there are some students that are completely capable of pulling themselves away from that device and holding attention.” Zhi Clark also thinks that “It’s honestly like your own self-reflection on how well you can stay off your phone, how interested you are in what’s going on.” On the other hand, Pope again pointed out, “grabbing a student’s attention” is a teacher’s job. “I need to make this interesting enough to where they want to pay attention to what I have to say and the content that we’re learning, rather than, you know, going straight to their device.” Jaelyn Galasinao says it another way, “If they (teachers) don’t care, I don’t care.” Previous Article Next Article Copy link Keyla Jimenez is a former staff writer for Ka Lama Hawai'i. She is ajunior and currently the president of the Lahainaluna Newswriting 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 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.

Explore the latest sports updates from Lahainaluna on our news magazine page. Stay informed with engaging content on all things sports at Lahainaluna. Sports at Lahainaluna Football Wrestling Wrestling At King Kekaulike Read More Lahainaluna vs. Leilehua Lunas Ready for Playoff Clash Against Leilehua Read More Lunas v. Maui High Sabers If they win, the Lunas have a chance at the state championship. Read More Lunas’ Fighting Spirit Overcoming COVID Challenges Read More

< 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.

< All Candidates Grayson Guzman Challenger 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

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