KAPA‘A — While workers at Kapa‘a High School spent the spring break repairing damage left by recent storms, students in the school’s peer mediation program painted a mural to promote peace. Within earshot of a crew repainting a classroom on
KAPA‘A — While workers at Kapa‘a High School spent the spring break repairing damage left by recent storms, students in the school’s peer mediation program painted a mural to promote peace.
Within earshot of a crew repainting a classroom on the lower campus, a group of students worked atop ladders to complete their project in time for school to resume Monday.
“The workers are repainting the classroom,” said Trevor Calapatin, a student in the Kapa‘a High School Peer Mediation ‘Ohana class. “There was a lot of rain, and it all came down this way.”
Calapatin is one of the students who spent their spring break working on a mural project using as inspiration the seven core values and Pillars of Peace proposed by Keith Kitamura, advisor and teacher of the peer mediation class.
“This is totally student-driven and student-created,” Kitamura said last week. “Trevor and Ka‘imi Moniz came up with the idea, and the rest of the students are all working on it. I told them to use the seven core values, and they did the rest. They could do whatever they wanted in terms of design and how it was presented.”
Kitamura said they chose to paint their mural in a school hallway that most freshmen to get to classes located on the lower campus.
“This is definitely coming out better than I expected,” Kitamura said. “The students are doing a really good job, and their creativity is unreal.”
Kitamura, who has headed the mural project since its inception in 2009, said the students who participate in the project have a good time and make a difference.
“This is something to help not only the school, but the community,” he said. “And it’s going to be here for future generations of students.”
On one of the pieces done in the original mural, the name Kona Kai is recognizable as Miss Kaua‘i for 2011.
Kitamura said eventually he wants to see the peer mediation program expand to all schools on the island.
“Right now, we have it at Kapa‘a Middle School and at Kapa‘a High School,” he said. “The program just expanded to become a regular class with seven periods.”
The seven core values are: loyalty, respect, integrity, acceptance, forgiveness, honesty and trust.
The four Pillars of Peace are teamwork, leadership, humility and selfless service.
“Every year, we go to Leilehua High School (on O‘ahu) for a conference, and they have a Peace Garden with a Pillar of Peace,” Kitamura said.
“Our long-term goal is to eventually have one here at Kapa‘a High School.”
