On Thursday, the Hawaii State Department of Education released a report indicating that a shocking number of students, 2,025 in total, remain unaccounted for within the Lahaina public school system following the deadly fire that swept through the town of Lahaina on Maui Island on August 8. Prior to the fire, the Lahaina school district comprised four educational institutions: two elementary schools, one intermediary school, and one high school. The collective enrollment was 3,001 students. Due to the extent of the fire damage, all four schools have been forced to close. One elementary school has sustained significant destruction and is unlikely to reopen soon, while the other three schools experienced varying degrees of damage caused by high winds, debris, and soot. The report does not provide information on whether or not, or to what extent, many of the missing students may have perished in the fire.
The report states that, as of August 21, among the initial enrollment of 3,001 students on August 8, 538 have successfully “re-enrolled in other public schools,” while 438 have opted for enrollment in the State Distance Learning Program (SDLP), English and Hawaiian language immersion. Addressing the remaining 2,025 missing students, the report specifies that they constitute the “Remainder of students who have not re-enrolled in another public school or opted for distance learning (may have moved out of state, enrolled in private schools.”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser highlighted that one private school on Maui has received approximately 1,000 new applicants since the fire. However, the article also noted a private school with 200 students was destroyed by the fire.
From the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
Meanwhile, Maui’s private schools also are in flux. Maui Preparatory Academy recently received a surge of about 1,000 applications for new openings the school made to accommodate displaced students, officials posted online this week. “We shuffled, rearranged the entire campus to welcome 110 new students (a 40% enrollment increase from last year). It is only a drop in the bucket. So many students not in classrooms today,” the school posted Monday on Instagram.
Sacred Hearts School has posted on its website that its campus faced a “devastating fire that has left our campus in ruins.” A Hawaii Association of Independent Schools report shows the school enrolled about 200 students.
Government authorities have not been transparent regarding the number of children who were killed in the fire. It’s been two weeks and they continue to report that the death toll is 115, with an estimated range of 850 to 1,100 unaccounted for. Officials have yet to release a comprehensive list of those presumed missing.
The mayor of Maui, Richard Bissen, refused to even give an estimate on how many children are missing when questioned recently by reporters.
Watch:
After ten days of devastating fire in Maui the mayor, Richard Bissen couldn’t give an answer how many kids are missing.
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) August 20, 2023
Honestly what is going on in Maui?
Why is there no answers or accountability? pic.twitter.com/R0xjxVukMc
Maui’s police chief put journalist Nick Sorter in a headlock for pressing Mayor Bissen for an answer about the missing children:
Watch:
Maui’s police chief placed journalist Nick Sortor in a headlock after he inquired about the details surrounding the disappearance of the children. pic.twitter.com/4FSMuuJVjK
— Jack Straw (@JackStr42679640) August 23, 2023
🚨 MAUI POLICE HEADLOCK ME FOR ASKING THE MAYOR ABOUT MISSING CHILDREN
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 23, 2023
MAYOR BISSEN KNOWS THE ANSWER, BUT HE’S HIDING IT.
The mainstream media have been REFUSING to press the Mayor on this, so residents and I started pressing him HARD for the past SEVERAL DAYS.
He’s been… pic.twitter.com/ewZgl7lwz4
On the day the fire swept through Maui, schoolchildren in Lahaina refrained from attending classes due to the strong offshore hurricane winds. A significant number were left at home alone, given that their parents were at work.
Per a report by The Associated Press on Wednesday, a father managed to rescue his own children from the fire, yet he is regretful that he was unable to save his neighbors’ children:
Many of the survivors are angry, and haunted by the thought that a just few minutes of notice could have saved many lives.
Baird’s neighborhood near Lahainaluna Road was filled with kids who were home alone when the flames hit, he said.
“We needed like 10 more minutes, and we could have saved a lot of kids,” he said, choking back tears. “If we’d just had like a 10- or 15-minute warning.”
The family ventured out to a Kahului mall recently, looking for a moment of normalcy in the aftermath of the tragedy. They ran into a playmate of their son.
“The kids just don’t have a filter. So their son ran up and was just telling our son, you know, ‘This kid is dead. This kid is dead.’ And it’s like, all my son’s friends that they come to our house every day,” he said. “And their parents were at work, and they were home alone. And nobody had a warning. Nobody, nobody, nobody knew.”
