School staff sued for failing to follow safety protocol after student sex assault on Hawaii campus

The family of a 9th-grade student is suing school officials for negligence after she was allegedly sexually assaulted at a school in Hawaii.

The girl at McKinley High School in Honolulu was allegedly assaulted by a male classmate in February 2021 on her first day of in-person classes following months of COVID-19 remote learning.

The male student allegedly showed her a gun that he had on his person – a Daisy airsoft pistol that looked like a firearm – and after having her follow him, telling her they were meeting friends, brought her into a restroom in a remote building on the edge of the campus where he allegedly assaulted her.

According to the lawsuit, another boy accompanied them and was also in the restroom during the incident. 

The girl called her mother afterward and reported the assault to school officials, who informed the police. However, the complaint claims school administrators failed to follow safety protocol in light of the report of a gun on campus.

“Instead of urgently locking down the school and employing safety measures to address a gun on campus, McKinley administration telephoned the Perpetrator’s behavioral health specialist, who was meeting with the Perpetrator at the time,” the suit says.

Police recovered the boy’s airsoft gun as well as an ax that he had on the day of the incident; both had been hidden after the incident when he temporarily ran from the behavioral health specialist.

According to the lawsuit, the vice principal had been previously made aware of the gun, which the boy claimed he carried for protection.

The lawsuit claims school security policy was not followed with regard to the building where the alleged assault took place. The door was supposed to be locked, security personnel were assigned to patrol the building, and cameras were in place. However, the lawsuit claims the restroom  “was unlocked, the hallway and other areas in the vicinity of the boy’s bathroom were vacant and deserted, there were no security personnel or McKinley staff in the area, and no one was monitoring the security cameras surveilling the area.” 

The suit alleges school staff had been aware of the boy’s aggressive and unpredictable nature. Additionally, the school community was not informed about the incident by the school, according to Hawaii News Now.

“This is a tragic case of what can happen when school officials fail in their duties related to safety and security,” said Thomas Otake, attorney for the family. “The DOE needs to do better, and our clients hope this case will bring about much-needed improvements so nothing like this ever happens again.”

The boy was prosecuted in family court, and though the juvenile case was confidential, Otake said his clients “were satisfied with the way that prosecution was handled and the result.” The girl now attends a different school.

McKinley High School was involved in another sexual assault lawsuit, in which the state was ordered to pay $10 million to a former student who was sexually assaulted repeatedly by over six male students.