Lanai mom sues DOE for failing to provide immersion program

A Lanai mother is suing the state Department of Education and members of the Board of Education over the lack of a Hawaiian language immersion program at Lanai’s only public school and an alleged failure to address a chronic teacher shortage at the school.

Chelsa-Marie Clarabal says her children are being discriminated against and denied their right to a comprehensive Hawaiian education.

According to her lawsuit, filed in Oahu Circuit Court by attorneys with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., when Clarabal relocated her family to Lanai last year, her youngest children, daughters Kamele and Malie, could not read or write in English.

The girls had attended a Hawaiian language immersion program at Paia Elementary on Maui — one of 22 programs operating in public schools that collectively educate about 2,500 students in Hawaiian in kindergarten through 12th grade. English typically is not formally introduced as a subject until the fifth grade.

When the girls enrolled at Lanai High & Elementary last fall, there was no immersion program available.

Malie, who had completed kindergarten on Maui, was assigned to repeat kindergarten, and because of the language barrier, she was instructed by a teacher to use sign language.

Her sister, Kamele, was reprimanded for completing written assignments in Hawaiian.

Clarabal requested an educational assistant to help Kamele in the classroom, but the school’s acting principal at the time suggested the services of a school psychologist, the lawsuit says.

"I think it goes without saying that in this day and age this should not be happening with all that’s being done to revive the Hawaiian language," said Sharla Manley, lead attorney for the case.

The lawsuit alleges several violations of the state Constitution, including the state’s obligation to:

» Provide "a Hawaiian education program consisting of language, culture and history in the public schools."

» Protect the traditional and customary rights of Native Hawaiians.

» Utilize the Hawaiian language as an official language of Hawaii.

A DOE spokes­man said the department could not comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.

Clarabal and other parents asked school administrators last year to establish immersion classes at the school. They compiled a list of more than 60 elementary students interested in enrolling in a program.

Earlier this year, Clarabal says, she was told Malie had been accepted into the school’s immersion classes for kindergarten and first-graders, but no classes were offered when school started in August.

Malie was assigned to a regular first-grade class, which did not have a permanent teacher at the start of the school year. Kamele’s third-grade class also did not have a permanent teacher. The classes were taught for several weeks by substitutes, including the school’s vice principals.

The girls are currently being home-schooled.

"It’s quite alarming that what we’re talking about is not just an issue of immersion instruction not being provided, but a lack of a stable teacher-student relationship, which is really critical for a child’s academic success," Manley said.

The state has long struggled to attract and retain teachers willing to teach on the rural island.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported earlier this month that the Lanai school started the academic year in August with 11 vacancies, meaning 1 in 4 teaching positions was unfilled.

The school lost the positions due to a combination of retirements, transfers to public schools on other islands, and relocations back to the mainland.

Principal Elton Kino­shita previously told the newspaper that he had been able to fill all but two of the positions as of this month. One of the outstanding vacancies was for a Hawaiian immersion teacher.

The school essentially defunded the two remaining vacant positions, which are paid for using per-pupil funding. Because the school’s overall enrollment dipped by 20 students, the school had to return about $92,000 in per-pupil funds to the state.

A newly hired teacher with a background in Hawaiian studies is hoping he can help grow the number of Hawaiian speakers on the island.

Shaftton Kaupu-Cabuag, who started Friday as a special-education teacher, has offered to teach a free adult Hawaiian language class for any interested residents.

"The parents have to be invested," said Kaupu-Cabuag, who previously taught at three immersion schools on Hawaii island. "You need that buy-in from parents for an immersion program to work."

He said he had been visiting his sister and nieces on Lanai over the past eight years and recognized a need.

"As I’ve been coming back and forth these years, I would ask people, ‘What’s the (Hawaiian) name of this wind or this rain?’ No one would know and that made me really sad," Kaupu-Cabuag said. "I knew I wanted to help the community start some kind of language program, whether it be immersion or cultural."