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In Alynthia Penn’s sixth grade history classroom, students display fidget spinners, stress balls and stuffed animals on their desks.

Since returning to Lahaina Intermediate School’s campus in October, Penn has encouraged her students to bring small items to her classroom that can offer comfort during the school day.

“They’re reminders of the people that we love, the people who believe in us and maybe happy times or goals ahead of us,” Penn said. 

The state Department of Education has increased the number of mental health professionals on Maui since the Aug. 8 Lahaina fires, and parents and staff were calling for even more support for students and teachers as they entered the holidays. 

Faculty members also say conflicts between students are increasing, and dozens of Lahaina teachers still don’t have stable housing more than five months after the disaster.

Princess Nahienaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High School reopened their campuses for the 2023-24 school year in October. Princess Nahienaena Elementary has also housed students and faculty from King Kamehameha III Elementary, which was destroyed. 

In November, the schools had a combined enrollment of about 2,000 students, roughly 1,000 fewer than had been pre-registered before the fire.

As students emerge from survival mode, they may have angry outbursts, anxiety and diminished interest in academics and extracurricular activities, said Benjamin Thompson, an adult and child psychiatrist for the Pacific Permanente Group on Maui.

“I would say there’s more to appear in the future with regards to our kids,” Thompson said. 

Meanwhile, California schools that faced similar devastation from wildfires in 2017 and 2018 offer a possible preview of the road ahead for Lahaina students and faculty. 

Fears Of Students ‘Suffering Alone’

Since returning from Thanksgiving break, Victoria Zupancic has seen an increase in fights and heightened emotions at Lahainaluna High. Zupancic, the school’s curriculum, testing and Title I coordinator, said concerns about families’ abilities to remain in hotels during the holidays have likely affected students’ behavior.   

“It seems like a lot of these things are showing face later as we’re coming closer to major transitions and major deadlines,” Zupancic said. 

Before students returned to the Lahaina campuses, the DOE offered psychological training to teachers and has since provided additional trauma and grief training, according to the . As of October, Lahaina schools had 11 counselors and four behavioral health specialists, with 20 additional mental health professionals set to join Maui schools in the coming weeks, according to department spokesperson Nanea Kalani. 

But Mindi Cherry, a first grade teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary, said she wishes there was more support staff on campus. 

Since the start of the school year, she said, the elementary school has lost one of its counselors, putting a greater strain on its abilities to offer one-on-one support to students. She said her own daughter, who attends Lahaina Intermediate, seems unaware of the availability of mental health professionals who can support her at school. 

After traumatic events like wildfires, mental health resources can be scarce, said Diann Kitamura, a deputy superintendent in California’s Sonoma County Office of Education. Kitamura was superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools in 2017, when wildfires destroyed more than 5,000 homes and forced about 100,000 people to evacuate. 

Using donated money, the Santa Rosa district created an integrated wellness center with tutors, therapists and nurses available to the entire community, Kitamura said. The center remained open over the holidays because she was concerned about students’ abilities to cope with disrupted traditions and housing insecurity as schools closed for the break.

“That’s another big component, the first holiday that comes around,” Kitamura said. “There’s going to be traumatic loss because they’re not having the same sort of holiday they had before the fire.” 

Even when resources are available, there’s no guarantee students will access them, said Larry Johnson, who became co-principal of Paradise Junior High School shortly after the 2018 wildfires in Northern California. 

Following the fires, Johnson said his school had a ratio of roughly 35 students to one school counselor. Still, some students were initially uncomfortable discussing their mental health, he said.

Hannah Sperske, now 21 and living in Chico, was a junior at Paradise High School at the time of the wildfires. The high school made counselors available after the fires, Sperske said, but that didn’t change the fact that the school’s tennis courts and nearby homes had burned and her surroundings smelled like smoke for weeks afterward.

Sperske said she’s unsure if the fires or the coronavirus pandemic, which began during her senior year of high school, took a larger toll on her mental health. She cried every day after the fires, overwhelmed by the fact that her family had to do everything from rebuilding their house to little things like buying new toothbrushes and laundry detergent.

“Every single thing you’ve ever known, and every person you’ve ever known, and every item you’ve ever known — everything is just gone,” Sperske said. “It’s just having to rebuild your entire life.”

A ‘Breaking Point’ For Teachers?

In Lahaina, Alfy Basurto is worried about the stigma around mental health in schools. A father of two Lahainaluna High students, he thinks students may avoid seeking help if their classmates aren’t doing the same.  

Schools should create mandatory classes educating students about mental health and coping mechanisms, Basurto said, based on the assumption that all students and staff need extra support.

“The kids, I think, are quietly suffering alone,” Basurto said. 

In November, teacher Jackie Ellis was overwhelmed. In addition to returning to Lahainaluna High’s campus in October, Ellis had moved five times in three months after losing her home. 

“It just became too much and overwhelming,” Ellis said. “Every little thing started to become a big thing.”

Using her personal leave, Ellis took time off from school and returned to her family’s home in Georgia. As Lahainaluna’s senior class advisor, Ellis hopes to return by spring to see her students graduate. But she wishes the DOE had extended more support to teachers seeking stable housing after the fires.

As of last month, approximately 80 Maui teachers reported experiencing housing insecurity, deputy superintendent Tammi Oyadomari-Chun said at a recent Board of Education meeting. DOE has since shared the names of these employees with the Department of Human Services so they can receive disaster case management, Chun said, and the department has also asked the governor to prioritize teachers for Lahaina-based housing.

Each Lahaina campus has received a U.S. Public Health Service Corps mental health provider dedicated to supporting staff, and teachers can also access counseling services through the Employee Assistance Program, according to the DOE website. 

Following the 2017 Santa Rosa fires, Kitamura said she tried to offer additional flexibility for the 100 staff members who lost their homes. For example, the district created an absence bank where teachers could donate their sick leave for staff members who needed time to find stable housing. 

Zupancic would like to see additional efforts to help Lahaina staff members address their basic needs, including offering more time off from work. She’s seen an increase in absences among colleagues overwhelmed with the logistics of finding stable housing or struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

“We’re sort of at a breaking point,” Zupancic said.

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.