An incident where schoolchildren were hit with pepper spray at an O驶ahu school has added momentum to calls for counselors, not cops, on campus.聽

In late February, a Honolulu police officer deployed pepper spray against Kapolei Middle School students while trying to break up a fight, a rare use of force against Hawai驶i minors in an educational setting.聽

Emily Hills, senior attorney with the ACLU of Hawai驶i, said she would like to see more counselors and mental health professionals addressing issues on campus rather than police, who can sometimes escalate tensions.

鈥淲e are talking about kids in school and concerns about criminalizing behavior that really should be better dealt with through school officials or authorities,鈥� she said. 鈥淎side from whether or not this is constitutionally excessive force, was this really necessary?鈥澛�

A police officer told attendees at a neighborhood board meeting that the officer used the pepper spray because he was outnumbered. 

School safety is an ever-present concern and high-profile fights in recent years led parents and politicians to  in some O驶ahu schools. School resource officers were  in Kaimuk墨, Kapolei and Wai驶anae in January. 

There was no SRO present during the February middle school incident but some advocates, say is was nonetheless a sign there should be less police presence in schools, not more. They want to instead see a focus on getting more counselors and therapists in schools to help address student mental health and behavioral issues to prevent problems such as fights and bullying. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 shocking to think of pepper spray being used with children that age,鈥� said Deborah Bond-Upson, president of the organization Parents for Public Schools. 鈥淚 just think we need to do everything we can to make the atmosphere in our schools more peaceful and positive.鈥� 

Bond-Upson was pushing this session for passage of , which would be a first step toward requiring licensure for school psychologists in Hawai驶i. Hawai驶i is the  that doesn鈥檛 require its school psychologists to be licensed by the state board of psychology. 

The Education Committee deferred the bill last week, which generally kills a bill鈥檚 chances of making it through session. Committee Chair Donna Kim did not respond to a request for comment on why.

The Department of Education is also asking the Legislature for , who are school psychologists assigned to work with students with the highest levels of mental health needs. 

The interventionists would focus on assessing a student鈥檚 risk of self-harm or harming their peers and also help with transitions if the student is referred to an educational placement outside of a traditional classroom setting. 

Bond-Upson said she wishes more mental health support could help prevent fights and serious bullying from happening in the first place. She fears the use of pepper spray in response to the fight at Kapolei Middle School will lead to more negative consequences for students. 

鈥淚鈥檓 afraid it alienates them from the police. I鈥檓 afraid it makes them less comfortable being in school,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I would just want to see that we do everything we can to avoid that kind of situation, and one of the biggest things we need to do is to really fund psychological support in our schools.鈥�

Three Students Arrested 

The fight at Kapolei Middle School broke out around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 24. A group of girls had attacked another girl, Honolulu police Cpl. Roland Pagan shared at a public meeting. 

A responding officer, who would be the only officer on scene, grabbed one of the girls who was assaulting the victim and attempted to arrest her. A group of girls then grabbed the officer and other kids grabbed ahold of the girl he was trying to arrest, Pagan said. At that point, the officer used pepper spray. 

The incident occurred after school near the back entrance of campus, according to a statement from Department of Education spokeswoman Nanea Ching. School officials didn鈥檛 know how many students were involved, but she said no serious injuries were reported and those who were affected by the pepper spray were near the officer. 

One girl was arrested on a charge of third-degree assault, and two others were arrested for resisting arrest. Police declined to provide the ages of the girls and said they would not release further information.

Christine Denton, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Prosecutor鈥檚 Office, said the office is prohibited from discussing juvenile cases. Criminal justice records involving minors in Hawai驶i are shielded by law from public view. 

In a letter sent home to parents, Kapolei Middle School Principal Daryl Agena said the pepper spray was deployed to 鈥渄isperse the crowd and restore order.鈥� 

Leslie Keating, the parent of an eighth grader at Kapolei Middle School, brought up her concerns about the incident at a Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board meeting in February. She said her son was not present during the fight, but she was worried about the use of pepper spray on young students. Kapolei Middle School includes grades 6-8, and students could be anywhere from 11 to 14 years old. 

鈥淭hese are chemical weapons that have chemicals that we don鈥檛 know the long-term effects of,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not okay with it.鈥�  

Pagan said he is unaware of any long-term effects of pepper spray. 

鈥淧epper spray is one of our lowest-level uses of force,鈥� Pagan told the neighborhood board, 鈥渁nd he used it because he was outnumbered.鈥� 

鈥楨xtreme Force鈥�

Keating told Civil Beat she doesn鈥檛 agree with the use of pepper spray on students or adults, but she is especially concerned about its use at a middle school where some children may have asthma or other breathing issues that make them particularly sensitive.聽

鈥淚 mean, some of these kids weigh 80 pounds, they don鈥檛 have adult bodies yet,鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淪o using pepper spray on them, I don鈥檛 know, it very much irked me.鈥澛�

Jannet Lee-Jayaram, an emergency pediatrician and clinical associate professor with the University of Hawai驶i鈥檚 John A. Burns School of Medicine, said pepper spray isn鈥檛 known to have long-term effects, but it can cause injuries to the lungs and eyes, including corneal abrasions from people rubbing their eyes too hard after exposure.

In the short term, pepper spray can cause intense pain in the eyes, irritation in the nose and lungs and burning of the skin. 

The use of chemical agents, like pepper spray, sits in the middle of the spectrum in . The policy ranges from techniques with the lowest risk of injury to those with the highest risk of serious injury or death. 

The first three options are officer presence, verbal directions and physical contact. Chemical agents, including pepper spray, are listed as the fourth option. The options escalate from there, including using physical strikes, canines or even firearms. 

The policy states that the use of chemical agents on a crowd should be directed by an incident commander on scene unless an officer believes someone is in immediate danger of serious injury or death. 

Wookie Kim, legal director of the ACLU of Hawai驶i, said it鈥檚 difficult to determine whether the officer鈥檚 use of pepper spray in this scenario was justified without knowing more of the details. But, he noted of chemical agents should be reserved for the most threatening scenarios. 

In an instance like this one, which involved young people at school, other deescalation methods should have been considered first. 

鈥淲e should be very concerned about the use of such extreme force with middle schoolers,鈥� he said. 

鈥楥ounselors Not Cops鈥� 

Pepper spray has been used at schools before in Hawai驶i 鈥� and around the country. 

In 2023, Honolulu police officers  to break up a fight at Kapolei High School. Paramedics treated multiple students for exposure but no serious injuries were reported, according to an HNN article from the time. 

In other parts of the country, however, children have been hospitalized from pepper spray exposure at school. 

In February, a 12-year-old in Tulsa, Oklahoma, went to the hospital after  students participating in an ICE protest outside their school. In September, 32 students and faculty members at a Florida high school were hospitalized after school police and administrators  to break up a large fight. 

The incident at Kapolei Middle School brings up the question of whether police officers should be the ones addressing student behavioral problems on campus, Kim, of the ACLU, said.  

鈥淥ur whole position is that we shouldn鈥檛 have substantial police presence on school campuses,鈥�  he said. 鈥淲e want counselors, not cops.鈥� 

The focus, many advocates and parents say, should shift to getting more mental health support for students. 

During the last Education Committee, committee members and testifiers discussed HB1889 and debated whether creating a license structure would help or hinder the Department of Education鈥檚 ability to recruit more psychologists and fill its vacancies. 

Currently, a psychologist  to work as a school psychologist in Hawai驶i. 

While advocates say creating a license structure would create training and ethical standards for the position, Sen. Donna Kim questioned whether adding the requirement would create more bureaucratic hoops for school psychologists to jump through.  

But Bond-Upson, of the Parents for Public Schools group, said requiring licences would allow eligible services in schools to be reimbursed by Medicaid. 

Overall, she said she hopes the pepper spray incident can lead to change in how behavioral issues are handled at schools. 

鈥淚 am heartbroken that the police had to enter the situation,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 why my first responses are, 鈥榃hat is it we can do to make the atmosphere of the school such that this kind of alarming behavior does not happen to kids and with kids?鈥欌��

All it took was the mere mention of Uvalde for Alma Rodriguez to start tearing up.

The El Paso native was among dozens of school counselors who packed a dimly lit room at the Austin Convention Center on Monday to attend a training session on school shootings that was part of the American School Counselor Association鈥檚 annual conference.

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Rodriguez has been a school counselor for two decades and currently lives in Arizona. She said the deaths of 19 students and two teachers during Texas鈥� deadliest school shooting in Uvalde, a predominantly Hispanic city, reverberated across the country even before the countries鈥� school counselors discussed the prevalence of such massacres this week.

鈥淚 think it hit home because they look just like our kids,鈥� Rodriguez said. 鈥淣ot just my kids at the school I work at, but obviously my children as well. It raised the heightened awareness of what job I have to be prepared for at an elementary.鈥�

Counselors packed that touched on the many roles they play before and after such tragedies. That included discussions on how they can prevent or prepare for crises, the 鈥渨eb of trauma鈥� that unfolds from school shootings and best practices for self-care after such psychologically debilitating events.

Katie Spenlau, a teacher and counselor at a Catholic school in Kentucky, said the need for a session about school shootings at a conference for professional development is 鈥渁 horrible thing.鈥�

鈥淎s a teacher and a counselor, I don鈥檛 know what I would do in that situation,鈥� Spenlau said about the Uvalde massacre. 鈥淗ow can anyone really prepare for that? You can鈥檛. So it鈥檚 just the more knowledge that you have, the better.鈥�

The conference fell weeks after the shooting. But it also comes after a particularly rough two years for counselors and other education professionals, who have had to navigate the pandemic, politicized fights over mask mandates and battles over what books children can access while also often being by scheduling and administrative work.

鈥淚鈥檝e heard from many, many, many educators and school counselors, anecdotally, that this was the hardest year,鈥� said Jill Cook, executive director of the American School Counselor Association. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e leaving the profession. And I know just after the Texas shooting, anecdotally, they鈥檙e like, 鈥業 can鈥檛 do this anymore.鈥欌��

Other sessions at the conference, which began Saturday and ends Tuesday, included meetings on building student-to-school connections, teaching graduate students trauma-informed practices and moving anti-racism conversations to action.

Michelle Clarke, an Indiana school counselor who worked at a middle school where a 13-year-old shot and injured a teacher and another student, presented the session titled 鈥淟essons from a School Shooting.鈥� She said counselors should be involved when schools develop crisis plans and advocate for the creation of reunification plans for campuses that don鈥檛 already have one. She discussed how to evaluate psychological trauma. And she said schools should have behavior threat assessment and management teams that, among other things, should define concerning behavior and determine when law enforcement intervention is appropriate.

The Uvalde gunman had no known mental health issues, according to Texas officials after the shooting. As a counselor responsible for about 200 students in Illinois, Nicole Fulton said she feels a sense of responsibility for every student and doesn鈥檛 want to see anyone fall through the cracks.

鈥淚 was just sad, because how did we miss it? How did they miss that? How do we not know? Like, we鈥檙e supposed to be the professionals,鈥� Fulton said. 鈥淵ou want to reach all your students, you want to build that relationship connection with your students, but you鈥檙e stretched thin as a school counselor.鈥�

Renee West, a counselor for fifth and sixth graders in Mississippi, said that out of all the school shootings in recent years, she was most 鈥渇labbergasted鈥� by the one in Uvalde.

When West first started in the profession more than two decades ago, school fights were among the biggest concerns.

鈥淣ow, you are worried about being able to do your job, and safety,鈥� she said.

Jonathan Borden, a middle school counselor in Alabama, said that people in the profession feel drained as a result of events like the Robb Elementary shooting.

鈥淲e are exhausted as educators, we鈥檙e exhausted as parents, we鈥檙e exhausted as citizens,鈥� Borden said. 鈥淲hat is so difficult about us getting it together to protect our babies? And it doesn鈥檛 matter where you are, doesn鈥檛 matter your income level. It doesn鈥檛 matter your socioeconomic status or your race or what your religious beliefs are. It鈥檚 just simply getting it together.鈥�

During the session on school shootings, attendees sometimes lifted their phones to snap photos of the slideshow presentation. Counselors would express their agreement with a particular point through humming affirmations. Others stayed behind at the conclusion of the presentation to ask more questions 鈥� including Laura Cugini, a 26-year-old graduate student from New Jersey who鈥檚 hoping to pave a long-term career in school counseling.

鈥淭his is, unfortunately, the epicenter of another traumatic event, and I feel like there鈥檚 so much training out there, but you鈥檙e never going to be 100% sure,鈥� Cugini told the Tribune. 鈥淪o I think the more that I can at least surround myself with information and interventions in my role, if I can at least strengthen my role in my outreach, that鈥檚 one step closer to preventing a potential crisis.鈥�

This article originally appeared in a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

More than a quarter of a million fewer high school seniors have applied for financial aid since the beginning of the pandemic, and the slip is particularly striking in schools with high minority and low-income student populations 鈥� an early indicator that the decline in college enrollment among disadvantaged students is continuing.

, released Monday by the National College Attainment Network, shows just over half of this year鈥檚 graduating class, 53 percent, had completed a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, by July 2 鈥� 190,000 fewer than in 2019 and the second year in row with a decline. Research shows a between completing the application and enrolling in college.

鈥淭he real challenge is there are going to be some assumptions that because the fall semester is going to look more normal on college campuses, that students will just show up,鈥� said Bill DeBaun, the nonprofit鈥檚 director of data and evaluation. 鈥淐ollege-going is not a light switch.鈥�

While this year鈥檚 graduates have until the end of June 2022 to file for assistance for 2021-22, the decline in applications last year was accompanied by an almost in recent high school graduates 鈥� especially high among those from 鈥� immediately enrolling in college, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

States have moved in recent years to make FAFSA completion a requirement for high school graduation, but the disruption in college advising for this year鈥檚 graduating class began the day schools closed for the pandemic. College counselors struggled to maintain contact with students remotely, but some are now stepping up efforts to get students back on track.

DeBaun noted that while the class of 2020 still had almost three-fourths of a typical senior experience 鈥� and might have filed financial forms before schools shut down 鈥� this year鈥檚 class not only had an 鈥渆ntirely abnormal鈥� year but missed out on spring college advising activities at the end of their junior year.

The decline in completion rates was almost four times higher in schools where more than half of the students are Black and Hispanic. In Title I-eligible schools, rates were down 6.5 percent compared to 3.7 percent in schools with less poverty.

Some students have to help out their families during the pandemic, but DeBaun said it鈥檚 the combination of economic setbacks 鈥� hunger, housing mobility, lack of internet access and having to share learning space with siblings 鈥� that have derailed students鈥� college plans.

鈥淭o get students to complete anything was challenging,鈥� said Patty Williams-Downs, executive director of the Houston affiliate of OneGoal, a nonprofit that works with schools in six cities to help students plan for college. 鈥淭he desire to go to college and not experience what you had anticipated a year ago was flattening.鈥�

Some students decided because they didn鈥檛 want to learn online and others were concerned about on campus and taking it home to family members.

FAFSA completion rates were trending downward even before the pandemic, according to the network released Monday. The only year-over-year increase in rates since 2012-13 came in 2017-18. In that year, Federal Student Aid made the form available three months earlier and began allowing applications to submit tax return information from the prior year, but those incentives didn鈥檛 stop a pandemic-related decline.

Requiring FAFSA completion for high school graduation has been a more recent state policy trend, with the goal of removing barriers to college enrollment.

Louisiana, which became the first state to require FAFSA completion for graduation in 2018, has so far this year with almost 74 percent of the senior class, followed by Tennessee at 72 percent and Washington, D.C. with 69 percent.

states have since either passed or considered legislation, but such requirements, DeBaun said, should come with training and support for counselors and school personnel helping students through the process. He鈥檚 encouraged by a that provides grants to districts that make FAFSA completion a graduation requirement. And in Michigan, education officials plan to spend federal relief funds on hiring more high school counselors and have made FAFSA outreach to families part of their .

With college planning, 鈥渞elationships pre-COVID mattered and post-COVID definitely matter,鈥� said Williams-Downs. OneGoal teachers begin focusing on college readiness in students鈥� junior year and continue through the transition to college. The Houston site鈥檚 FAFSA completion rate among the 2,500 students served is usually 87 percent. It dropped this year to 76 percent, but Williams-Downs said it could have been a lot worse.

At the federal level, the focus has been on simplifying the FAFSA by slashing the number of questions from over 100 to 36 and increasing the amount low-income students can receive through Pell Grants. But the revisions included in a December pandemic relief package won鈥檛 go into effect until 2024-25, than the law intended.

The U.S. Department of Education, however, took short-term steps last week to cut red tape for this year鈥檚 applicants, by a financial verification process. The department estimates the change could help about 200,000 minority and low-income students.

“This has been an exceptionally tough year,” Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, said in a statement. “We need to ensure students have the most straightforward path to acquiring the financial aid they need to enroll in college and continue their path to a degree.