Editor’s note: This is another in a series of columns about youth welfare on the island. The Garden Island This week’s column is in response to a middle school girl who called Annaleah and wanted to know if something that
Editor’s note: This is another in a series of columns about youth welfare on the island.
The Garden Island
This week’s column is in response to a middle school girl who called Annaleah and wanted to know if something that another girl did was harassment at school.
It turns out that it was, and I directed her to tell her parents to call the other girl’s parents. If the girl continued her behavior, they needed to get the vice principal, and/or police officer assigned to her school involved.
Children’s brains just don’t retain information, or generate creatively if they are under stress, especially the stress of being harmed. That is why there is a zero tolerance policy for violence in Kaua’i schools. There are several forms of harassment. These come from the Hawaii Criminal and Traffic Law Manual.
A person commits the offense of harassment if, with intent to harass, annoy, or alarm any other person, that person:
• Strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise touches another person in an offensive manner or subjects the other person to offensive physical contact (if bodily injury or pain occurs, it becomes assault);
• Insults, taunts, or challenges another person in a manner likely to provoke an immediate violent response or that would cause the other person to reasonably believe that the actor intends to cause bodily injury to the recipient or another or damage to the property of the recipient or another;
• Repeatedly makes telephone calls, faxes, or electronic mail transmissions without a legitimate purpose of communication;
• Repeatedly makes a communication anonymously or at an extremely inconvenient hour;
• Repeatedly makes communications after being advised by the person to whom the communication is directed that further communication is unwelcome;
• Makes a communication using offensively coarse language that would cause the recipient to reasonably believe that the actor intends to cause bodily injury to the recipient or another or damage to the property of the recipient or another.
These rules are the same for minors, or adults. Harassment is a petty misdemeanor. If the person being harassed has proof that the person is harassing him/her, or he/she is in an unsafe situation, he/she can ask the police for a Temporary Restraining Order to keep that person away for a period of time. It is effective immediately, and stays in effect for up to two weeks, in which time a court date is made to extend it, or dismiss it.
TROs first go to a Court Mediator to see if the parties can work out their differences. It’s helpful if this can happen, because if a TRO is in effect, the people can’t get together to work out their conflict. Many TROs do get worked out in court. If the parties can’t work it out, a judge hears the case and will either dismiss it with no grounds or grant a TRO for a certain amount of time.
“In Your Corner” is a phrase that means support. Its origin comes from boxing. In between rounds, the boxer retires to his corner, and a group of people coach him, give him medical help and water, and cheer him on.
Several adults have “stepped into the corner” for our teens, to answer questions and give support in the boxing ring of life. They are: K.C. Lum, Kaua’i Police Chief; Catherine Stovall, community response specialist, Kaua’i County; Edmund Acoba, Public Defender; Craig DeCosta, county Prosecuting Attorney; and Annaleah Atkinson, Teen Court Manager for Hale ‘Opio Kaua’i.
• Questions for this column may be e-mailed to Atkinson at aatkinson@haleopio.org, or sent through the U.S. Postal Service to her at Annaleah Atkinson, 2959 ‘Umi St., Lihu‘e, HI 96766. She will forward them to the one who can most appropriately answer them. There is also a toll-free Teen Hotline, 1-877-521-8336.