‘Through hell and back’: Lahainaluna’s senior class shaped by pandemic, wildfire

Chamille Balderas spent her freshman year at Lahainaluna High School taking virtual classes in the pandemic. She started her senior year losing her great-grandmother and two family homes in the Aug. 8 wildfire. 

Marching with her classmates at graduation on Sunday was going to be a chance to celebrate something good, to honor her great-grandmother, Louise Abihai, the oldest victim of the wildfire at age 97. Then on Wednesday, four days before graduation, Balderas found out she was a credit short and wouldn’t be allowed to march.

“When they gave me the news that I wouldn’t be able to walk the line, it broke my heart,” Balderas said Friday. “It just broke my heart, because the whole reason I wanted to walk the line was so I could show her (my great-grandmother) and so I could give her love and hold a seat for her, praying that she’d be there in spirit watching me and just walking down that line for her.” 

It was a tough moment for Balderas and other seniors to miss out on Sunday as their classmates received their diplomas following four years of high school under two different crises — the COVID-19 pandemic that began their freshman year, and the Aug. 8 wildfire that marked the start of their senior year. 

“I would just say we’re a very persistent and resilient class,” senior Lola Donez said Sunday. “We’ve literally been through it all I guess, and we’re still standing, we’re still here graduating. We still accomplished what every other high school student accomplishes when they graduate — we just kind of had to go through a lot more hardships.”

ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER

The “new normal” started in eighth grade for Donez, when the outbreak of COVID-19 forced schools to go virtual for their classes. She didn’t get a graduation — like many students, she picked up her diploma via drive-thru. The Zoom classes continued through her freshman year, and Donez laments that she missed out on many experiences — freshman orientation, figuring out how to get to her classes, social events like dance fevers and lip syncs.  

Donez transferred to Oaks Christian High School in California to play basketball for two years before returning to Lahainaluna for her senior year. 

“It was always my dream, I guess you could say, since I was younger, to go to Lahainaluna and especially like with basketball, to wear a Lady Lunas jersey and play,” Donez said. “And so the fact that I could come home, I could do that, but on top of it graduate with my friends that I’ve been with since preschool, and to just be with them and have this kind of experience together, which I’m really grateful for.” 

On the day of the fire, Donez and her dad Jason had gone to Lahaina with a freezer truck to preserve food at his workplace, Leilani’s on the Beach. They got stuck on the west side overnight, unaware of how bad the fire was and unable to reach Donez’s mother, who was on the Mainland, or her brother, who was at home in Makawao prepared to evacuate if the Kula fire got too close.

Going back to school after the horrific events of Aug. 8 was difficult, Donez said, especially when students and staff had to temporarily relocate to Kulanihako‘i High School’s campus in Kīhei. The disrupted start to the school year took students off track, and it seemed like “every class you were behind no matter what, because you just couldn’t catch up,” Donez said.

Lahainaluna senior Sanalio Vehikite also went through the disruptions of the pandemic and the fire. He remembers the social isolation of freshman year and the issues with Wi-Fi that made virtual learning a challenge. He couldn’t see his friends. He couldn’t play sports. 

“Nothing to keep us motivated,” Vehikite said. “A lot of my friends didn’t like school after that. Some of my friends dropped out since that year and moved away.” 

Vehikite and his family moved to a new place in Lahaina the day before the fire hit in August. Their home survived but was contaminated to the point that they couldn’t stay in it and had to throw many belongings away. They’ve been in a hotel ever since, with eight family members sharing a two-bedroom place. Vehikite credited his friends and wrestling with helping to take his mind off things — in February he became the first state boys heavyweight champion from Lahainaluna. This year’s graduation is “very important” for this class and something he says he’s been looking forward to for a long time. 

“It just shows how much we persevered through like hard times,” he said. “Everybody in this class is like super strong.”

MISSED CHANCE AT A LAST HURRAH

Given the past year, some seniors had hoped the school might make an exception for students with a handful of missing credits. Fewer than 10 seniors, or about 3.5 percent of Lahainaluna’s graduating class, didn’t meet academic requirements to receive their diplomas on Sunday, according to the state Department of Education. The DOE said it worked with families and students to whittle that number down from about 20, but some say they didn’t know until days before graduation that they didn’t qualify to march. 

Balderas said she spent much of the fourth quarter checking in with staff and working to improve her grades. She thought she was on track to graduate and was awaiting her final grades when her counselor told her on Wednesday that she was missing a credit and couldn’t walk the line. Balderas said she wasn’t told specifically what she was missing until she asked one of her teachers and found out that it was a class from a previous year.

“I don’t understand why they would tell me that last minute,” she said. 

Landon Dagupion said he was going through graduation practice on Thursday when he was “pulled off to the side, but in front of everybody,” and told that he couldn’t participate on Sunday. He said he wasn’t told what class he needed, only that he lacked the credits. His mom, Lisa Leano, went to the school later that day and found out that he was missing a credit for his English class.  

“Honestly I felt like embarrassed, because this entire time I did think that I was set, because nobody told me anything otherwise,” Dagupion said Friday.

Leano found out in an email April 16 that her son needed to bring up his English class grade in order to graduate. When Dagupion’s grade improved to a C, Leano said they thought it was enough to pass, but his earlier grades brought his average down, and he didn’t find out until graduation practice that he couldn’t march. Leano said her son works hard in school and had even made the cum laude list.

“It’s not like he just sat there and he got F’s the whole entire year and I’m over here playing victim about it,” Leano said. “Like no, he’s a really good student, and the school knows that. All I’m just asking is for a little bit of leniency and that the school be understanding to these kids that are graduating this year with all that they faced.” 

Both Balderas and Dagupion say they have the opportunity to make up the missing credits over the summer, but marching with their classmates after four challenging years is what they were most looking forward to. 

“This is really like a class that has been through hell and back, and being up there with my friends and sending one final hurrah with them would be amazing,” Dagupion said.

The DOE said in a statement on Sunday that it “cannot discuss details of individual student circumstances due to student privacy,” but said that the school followed up “with students and parents throughout the semester through phone calls, in-person meetings and/or emails.”

“We deeply empathize with the few students who, unfortunately, did not meet the requirements for their diploma this year. We understand the disappointment and frustration this may cause,” DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi said. “However, we are obligated to uphold graduation standards to ensure the integrity and value of our diplomas. We are committed to providing support and resources to help these students achieve their educational goals in the future.”

Even after the big celebration on Sunday, Lahainaluna’s students and staff still have challenges ahead. Last week, Maui educators at a Board of Education meeting advocated for increased pay differentials for West Maui teachers, mental health support and sharing of leave time for those still dealing with fallout from the fire. Vehikite, Balderas and many other displaced residents are still trying to figure out their next housing after the hotels. Balderas said it’s the loved ones they lost that keep them going.

“Our main focus is for my great-grandmother. She is what keeps us going,” Balderas said. “Because if she were still alive, she would never give up. She would be fighting this to the very end no matter what the cost is. So she’s like our main motivation as of right now. And then it would just be our entire family in general. We always tell each other like, ‘we can do this, we can get through this, it’s hard but we’ll be able to. We just gotta keep fighting.’”