Susahna-Michelle “Ahna” Santos, a former Kamehameha Schools student, now attends Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia– and the contrast between the safety of Kamehameha versus the safety of mainland public schools was recently put to a test.
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Menchville’s schedule was thrown off-kilter as the high school campus was suddenly informed of a school shooting threat. Ahna, who was in the cafeteria, had less than 30 minutes to leave school before the threat was allegedly active.
“At the time, I was towards the back near the exit, calling home and encouraging my friends to do the same,” she said. The cafeteria was in disarray, where students gathered in small groups away from the entrance and gravitated towards the emergency exits. The threat was issued around 2 hours before the cafeteria gathering. However, according to Ahna, the school did not take any preventive measures to make arrangements to prevent or reduce possible harm done to its students. There was no easy access to any warning regarding the threat. It was not announced on the intercom. It was allegedly posted on the school website, but the website was not promoted to students, so many had to rely on word of mouth.
The next day, while the Newport News Police Department was brought on campus to investigate the threat, school resumed as if nothing had happened. Ahna was plagued with anxiety about attending.
“Menchville is willing to cancel school due to ‘inclement weather,’ but not to spend a few days lead to the mass death of its students,” she said. For students attending Menchville, word of a shooting cannot be seen as an empty threat. The same day as the shooting threat, a 17-year-old Menchville student was shot and killed. One week before that, a 15-year-old student suffered the same fate. There were overall 3 shootings in 1 week alone.
On Sept. 24, KS canceled school to a contraband item that was turned into the office. Our campus leaders worked with the Honolulu Police Department to ensure the safety of haumāna and staff alike. Even despite the unlikelihood of a credible threat, chances were not taken in the small possibility of our safety being jeopardized. The email urged us not to report to school at all. Last year on April 15, school was canceled due to a violent graffiti threat on campus. The same safety procedures were followed. Our campus poses significantly few threats to our safety; we have two monitored gates with restricted access and security cameras all over campus. When there are risks, our campus takes necessary precautions to guarantee safety, even if school must close. “When I was attending middle and high school at KS, not once did I fear a shooting would occur,” Ahna said.
There is a striking difference between the safety and protection of Kamehameha’s campus versus Menchville’s. Hawaii is one of the safest states in terms of gun violence. Despite this, we take more measures to handle such situations accordingly than a state such as Virginia, which is not necessarily ranked high on gun violence, but still threatens the safety of its residents. “I honestly just hope to finish senior year unharmed,” She said. “Sometimes, I feel like even that’s a pipe dream.”
