A Kaua’i teacher has filed a police report against Governor Ben Cayetano’s liaison to Kaua’i for an alleged picket-line incident Wednesday morning. Tom Perry, UniServ director of the Kaua’i branch of the Hawai’i State Teachers Association, said Wednesday evening that
A Kaua’i teacher has filed a police report against Governor Ben Cayetano’s liaison to Kaua’i for an alleged picket-line incident Wednesday morning.
Tom Perry, UniServ director of the Kaua’i branch of the Hawai’i State Teachers Association, said Wednesday evening that a teacher told him earlier that day that she had nearly been hit by a car as she walked the picket line outside the state building on ‘Eiwa Street in Lihu’e.
Perry said the woman told him that the man behind the wheel of the car was Roy Nishida, Cayetano’s liaison to Kaua’i.
The car, Perry said, “just missed hitting her by an inch.”
“She was visibly shaken,” he said.
When reached at his home Wednesday evening, Nishida refused to comment on the alleged incident but said, “I want to apologize to the teachers and promise them I’ll respect their picket line from now on.”
A Kaua`i County Police inspector said yesterday afternoon that an incident report had been filed, but would neither confirm nor deny the driver’s identity.
Perry, who accompanied the educator to the nearby Lihu’e police station to fill out the report, said teachers experienced another run-in with Nishida earlier this week.
“He had been warned earlier,” Perry said.
This was the second incident report filed this week by strikers, Perry said. The other was based on an incident at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
Staff writer Matt Smylie can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226) and mailto:msmylie@pulitzer.net
