Letters for Sunday, December 3, 2006

• Red Raider pride

• Education for sustainable Hawai‘i

• No protection from check fraud

Red Raider pride

The spirits of the late Edmund Vasconcellos and Akio Kubota were hovering over the Kaua‘i High bench in Aloha Stadium, I’m sure, urging on the Red Raiders who fell just short of bringing Kaua‘i its first statewide football championship recently.

For it was our head coach “Ticky” who proved that rural lads from an “outer island” — as they called us in those pre-statehood years — could play with the big boys from O‘ahu.

Billed as “the most powerful grid outfit to come out of Kaua‘i High,” the 1947 Raiders sent Roosevelt (24-0) and Kamehameha (20-12) home on their shields behind the late QB Shigie Tsukayama and linemen Ken Apaka, Jimmy Westlake and Ken Chow.

Fans today recall the Kam game only because one of the visiting guards was an unknown named Don Ho.

A year later, Roosevelt (32-14) and McKinley (39-0) enjoyed the hospitality of Garden Islanders except on Isenberg Field. We stumbled at Farrington (6-19) but gave the mighty California All-Stars an epic battle in the old Honolulu Stadium before losing 12-13. Never mind that Vasco stocked the lineup with several alumni such as ageless Mamo Kaneshiro of Omao, who scored both KHS touchdowns. Triple-threat Richard Hadama of Koloa, arguably the best all-around athlete ever out of Kaua‘i, captained the team.

Success was the ticket for Vasconcellos to migrate to Honolulu in 1949 where he coached Kaimuki then Roosevelt until retirement, but not before he arranged a full-ride scholarship for Hadama to his alma mater, San Jose State. Dick returned though to run, pass and punt for UH.

It remained in 1949 for first-year Coach Seichi Ono, fresh from Springfield (Mass.) College, to produce a respectable 5-3 record, including victories over Farrington (6-0) and Waialua (34-7), losing a heartbreaker to McKinley (6-7). The feature of the Farrington game was opposing quarterbacks both named Allen Napolean. Ours from Huleia, now deceased. Billy Texiera of Puhi, Ed Hanki of Ahukini and Harry Yamaguichi of Lawai were all-KIF. “Champ,” of course, went on to capture many KIF crowns in his storied career.

So us old-timers will claim that the talent, training and will for Kauaians to now compete with anyone in the state was discipled two generations ago “amidst the ironwoods and the canefields nigh.”

Wheaton, Ill., and Koloa

Education for sustainable Hawai‘i

The recent Kui ka Lono Conference on Indigenous Education, Research and Well Being is a clear indicator of an exciting, new collaboration among organizations and individuals who are dedicated to improving the lives of Hawai‘i’s children. Kanu o ka Aina Learning Ohana wants to congratulate all the conveners — Na Lei Naauao — Native Hawaiian Charter School Alliance, the Kamehameha Schools, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and the Hawai‘i Department of Education for their wisdom in working together to explore viable choices needed to improve the educational experience of Hawai‘i public school students.

Education with Aloha, developed collectively over the past six years by Hawaiian-focused charter schools, is making progress as validated by the recent Kamehameha Schools study, AYP scores and countless anecdotal data, particularly among Hawaiian students who have not performed well in standard public schools. Assuring caring relations at the school-level, while providing curriculum and assessment that is relevant leads to academic rigor. Interestingly, culturally driven approaches align with the latest in 21st century educational paradigms. Both acknowledge multiple intelligences, focus on interdisciplinary, interactive education, include project- and place-based learning, and utilize performance-based assessments.

One needs only to look at the recent statistics about the Hawaiian poverty and homeless rates to understand that closing the educational achievement gap among Hawaiian children is critical to a sustainable Hawai‘i. Furthermore, closing this gap will benefit not only native Hawaiians, but all of Hawai‘i.

This can be achieved when we continue to work together as we did for this conference. Mahalo nui loa to all who made Kui Ka Lono 2006 a huge success.

Kanu o ka Aina Learning Ohana

No protection from check fraud

Caution … no one will protect you but yourself. Don’t be a victim of check fraud.

I was so confident this could never happen to me. I always pictured myself as a savvy business individual who would never allow a scam artist to dupe me. Well, I’m now sorry to say that I am a victim of check fraud. The scam, as I found out, is called the Nigerian check fraud … one of many scams to come out of that country.

A short summary of the fraud is as follows: We were contacted via e-mail through craigslist.com by a man who claimed to be in the military on a ship. He asked to reserve our local vacation condo for his niece and nephew’s honeymoon. He wanted to send one cashier’s check to us since he had limited access to his bank account as he was at sea. From the check, he wanted us to send the excess money to his travel agent, who would then book the airfare for the honeymoon couple, etc. We asked him not to send any money than what was owed us, but he did anyway. So we told the man that the bank would have to clear the check before we would send any money away which usually takes 10 days.

We took the check to the bank, and they cleared it that same day. In the same transaction they issued us another cashier’s check from them to wire to the “travel agent.” We did not have the funds in our accounts to cover the amount, so they processed it from the fraudulent check we gave them. A few days later our account was seized, without warning, to find out that the check was fraud (of course). When we met with the bank, the service manager blatantly said that the cashier’s check immediately set off red flags to her that it was a fraud. Of course we wanted to know where she was the day the check was so quickly cleared.

The bank was unwilling to take any responsibility for clearing a check we would have gladly waited to (and expected to) confirm. We would have never moved forward with the wire transfer if they had not cleared the check.

No one could help. Not the police, not the FBI, not the county prosecutor and especially not our bank, Bank of Hawaii. Although the criminal was responsible for initiating the action, the bank was the catalyst for the transaction. In no way did they attempt to protect us except from a fraud with which they were admittedly familiar.

FDIC regulates credit cards and ATM but not checks … even cashier checks. They protect the check issuer but not their good clients. When they say a check is cleared, don’t be fooled into thinking it is honored. It is in fact not until the check makes its way back to the bank from which it was issued.

The banks will not protect you, the police will not protect you, no one can protect you. You can only arm yourself with experience, and I hope to share mine so that more will not encounter this life altering experience. And as much as I am disappointed in falling victim to this stomach-turning crime, I am more distraught with Bank of Hawaii’s inability to admit any fault and get behind a good client who relied on their protection.

Lihu‘e