State Rep. Bob McDermott said Friday he will appeal a Circuit Court decision dismissing his lawsuit alleging conditions at Campbell High School are so poor and overcrowded that they violate the state Constitution.
Circuit Judge Edwin C. Nacino on Thursday dismissed the suit by McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) demanding the state provide funding to improve conditions at the school or immediately select a site and begin construction on a new East Kapolei high school. Enrollment at Campbell is 3,125 students, and the school now has 44 portable classrooms.
McDermott, who has two children attending Campbell, last year filed the class-action lawsuit against Board of Education Chairman Lance Mizumoto, schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and Gov. David Ige alleging Campbell students are suffering from “intolerable” overcrowded conditions.
The lawsuit also asked the court to force the state to repair “dilapidated and inadequate toilet facilities” and install air conditioning in every classroom at the school.
The state Attorney General’s Office represented the state Department of Education in the case and countered that McDermott and his allies “simply have no
legal basis to demand that the state provide with the school facilities and overall educational experience they deem acceptable.”
According to the attorney general, “plaintiffs have no fundamental due process right, either under the Hawaii Constitution or the federal Constitution, to demand the particular type of school facilities and services — e.g., permanent additional cafeteria and toilet facilities, cooler and quieter classrooms, increased extracurricular opportunities, etc. — that they deem desirable.”
Nacino agreed, and dismissed McDermott’s lawsuit in a brief written ruling issued Dec. 30.
Attorney General Doug Chin said in a written statement Thursday that heat abatement measures have already been implemented at Campbell, and additional measures are planned to cool its classrooms.
Chin also said state lawmakers last year appropriated $12 million to the DOE for the planning and construction of a new 30-classroom building at Campbell and that the DOE is requesting another $26.7 million from the Legislature this year to complete the project.
McDermott said he will appeal, citing language in the state Constitution that specifies that the state “shall provide for the establishment, support and control of a statewide system of public schools … including physical facilities therefor.”
“We believe the Circuit Court judge mistakenly viewed the law too narrowly and not in the context of the plain language” in the Constitution, McDermott said in a written statement.
