Minority students in Hawaii see higher arrest rates, report finds

A new report examining data from the police department as well as the state has found that students with disabilities, as well as students of certain ethnicities, are arrested at disproportionate rates on Oahu public school campuses.

It found that police consistently arrested students of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander ethnicities, as well as Blacks, at higher rates than their school population over a number of years.

In 2015-16, for instance, although students with disabilities only make up about 10% of Hawaii’s student body, 23.1% were arrested on school grounds, according to U.S. Office for Civil Rights data.

The same school year, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students made up 30.5% of the state’s student population, but 52.1% of students arrested, and 52.6% of students referred to police. In 2013-2014, Black students only made up 2.1% of the student body, but were 4.1% of students arrested.

“So there’s definitely a discriminatory reliance on police in schools and then of course, students being arrested on school grounds,” said co-author Omar Bird, a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The study, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between UH sociology faculty, graduate students and a public interest attorney, was prompted by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody last May, according to professor Nandita Sharma.

It examines data from the Honolulu Police Department as well as the Hawaii Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights.

The latter requires all public schools in the nation to report disciplinary actions taken against students from kindergarten to 12th grade, including the numbers arrested by and referred to the police, along with their demographic categories to the Office for Civil Rights via its Civil Rights Data Collection survey.

From examining HPD data further, researchers found that more than a third of the students in recent years were arrested for “status offenses” prohibited for minors, which generally include truancy, alcohol consumption, running away or violating curfews.

Of these “status offenses,” more than 93% were related to truancy, or having missed school or running away, issues that would be better addressed by counseling or therapy, the authors said, rather than putting youth through the criminal system.

Research has demonstrated the police arrests lead to lasting negative effect in youths’ lives — stigma, for instance, poorer academic performance, and further delinquency.

Additionally, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Black youth were overrepresented in these “status offense” arrests. In 2018-2019, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students made up 53.1%, while Black students made up 3.9% of these arrests.

The disproportionate “status offense” arrests of these ethnic groups on campus raise serious concerns, the authors said, because these students did not commit violent crimes or property crimes that would require police intervention.

Instead of arresting these students, the authors said, there should be nonpunitive interventions such as school counseling or mental health therapy.

The report also says the DOE has offered inaccurate and inconsistent data in its submissions to the Office for Civil Rights, which are required by federal law. These data reporting inconsistencies have existed for at least 15 years, according to the authors, and have yet to be corrected.

A new law approved by the Hawaii Legislature last year requires, additionally, that the DOE establish a standardized data collection process for student discipline, school-based arrests, and referrals to law enforcement. The department must analyze and report this data annually to the Board of Education, state Legislature, and public.

Additionally, the authors recommend that the DOE offer a more specific ethnic breakdown of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander to specify categories, such as Samoan or Micronesian, particularly because Hawaii is the most ethnically diverse state in the nation.

Because of these inaccuracies, the HPD data proved useful for this study, the authors said, and led them to a “reasonable belief” that the problem for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Black students is actually more dramatic than indicated by the state.

“The HPD data do show us a similar trend that we see reported by the DOE data, which is that Hawaii actually has a pretty serious problem in terms of discriminately policing students in schools,” said Sharma. “That’s really interesting, especially when people consider Hawaii to not have serious problems with racism.”

Authors of the report include Sharma, Bird, Noreen Kohl, and Nathalie Rita, all from UH Manoa’s Department of Sociology, and attorney Rae Shih.

The Hawaii Department of Education said it had not had the opportunity to fully review the source data used for the report and assertions made.

“There have been issues in the past with our data reporting for the Civil Rights Data Collection survey, which we have worked to amend and correct,” said the DOE in a statement. “We’ve also recently implemented a data quality process — which includes formal data validation checks with subject matter experts and data managers/stewards — to ensure reporting requirements are met.”

The DOE said it remains committed to ensuring its schools have positive climates and cultures where students can thrive.

“As we help our students develop crucial life skills, there will be times when they make decisions that can be detrimental to themselves and their peers,” the DOE said, “which is why we have a variety of wraparound services to address and prevent these types of behaviors.”

REPORT FINDINGS FOR STUDENTS K-12

>> Students with disabilities made up 10.3% of Hawaii’s student body in 2013-2014 and 2015-16, but were 22.2% and 23.1% of students arrested, respectively, those years.

>> Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students made up 32% and 30.5% of K-12 public school enrollment in 2013-14 and 2015-16 but were 51% and 52.1% of arrested students, and 48.1% and 52.6% of students referred to the police in those years.

>> Black students were 2.1% of the student body in 2013-14 but 4.1% of students arrested.

Source: “Discriminatory Policing in Hawaii’s Schools: Reliance on Police in Hawaii’s Schools is Excessive, Discriminatory, and Violates National Juvenile Justice Policies”