New University of Hawaii report finds people with disabilities, some racial-ethnic groups 'overrepresented in arrests'

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A new University of Hawaii report found that some groups are overrepresented in arrests in O'ahu schools. | Stock Photo

A new report released by the University of Hawaii states that there are discriminatory police patrolling Oʻahu schools and the Department of Education (DOE) does not fully report the issue to the federal government.

The report from the Sociology Department at the university highlights that Oʻahu schools depend on local police when disciplining unruly students. However, the dependency violates national juvenile justice procedures.

The authors researched collected data from the Honolulu Police Department and compared all the available data and reports from the state department of education over the last 10 years.

"We found that people who have disabilities and people who are represented in some racial-ethnic groups are overrepresented in arrests in status offenses, people who are arrested on school grounds and people who are referred to the police by the school administration," Omar Bird, one of the report's co-authors told Hawaii Public Radio. "There's been a lot of inconsistent reporting among the DOE throughout the years to this specific type of information. For example, in 2019 there was a report requested by the Government Accountability Office for rates of restraint and seclusion among the largest 20 districts. And through that reporting, there was inconsistency with: Who was counted, who was not counted and there was a discrepancy in numbers reported that contradicted a lot of information that the DOE was reporting on."

The report also revealed that in 2006 the Department of Education reported that no students were arrested or referred to the police during that year. Moreover, researchers maintain that it is very unlikely that no students were arrested that year. 

The DOE "failed to collect and/or report policing data," the report reads.

Additionally, native Hawaiians make up approximately 32% of K-12 students in the state. However, over half of all the arrested students amid the 2013-14 and 2015-16 school cycles were native Hawaiians. 

Moving forward to the 2017-18 school year, the DOE announced that 100% of all the students arrested had some kind of impediment. Even though, students with disadvantages made up 23% of all the students registered during the 2015-16 school years.

Meanwhile, the researchers who collected the data say the majority of school pupils were not arrested for violence or property damage. The ones arrested were incarcerated for truancy or other status offenses.