New School Year Brings Old Memories

STAFF WRITERS:   Sara Alejo  Austin Navarro Kaelyn Halili

Along with the new school year, Damien welcomes our new President, Dr. Arnold Laanui.   A 1986 Alumnus, Dr. Laanui has returned to his Alma Mater with new energy and new inspiration.   After his graduation 36 years ago, he received a Doctor of Education Degree from the University of Southern California, a Juris Doctorate Degree from the Richardson Shool of Law, University of Hawaii and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in  Political Science Degree from Pepperdine University.   Since then, he has worked with both the FBI and the Hawaii Department of Defense.   He is returning as Damien's fifth President.  

Since Dr. Laanui is our new president, the Keali`i news team checked in to see what it's like serving as the president of the school.   Dr. Laanui shared he has many big plans for this school year. This includes bringing the parents and the alumni together. He says that “Nobody’s quite united these two and when you look at high-performing schools, they have a rich sense of community that wraps around both those elements.”  Laaunui realizes that by bringing together the alumni and the parents, tremendous things are possible.   Another thing that Dr. Laauni plans on doing is restoring traditions and routines to the state they were in, or better, before COVID. 

Since Dr. Laanui is an alumnus, he has noticed many changes since he left.  For example, the TC Ching building wasn’t there when he was attending Damien, and as for the students, the big change he's noticed is that Damien is a co-ed school now. When asked “What is going on with the A.C. in the gym and the Cafe?” Dr. Laanui replies , “Whoever built it didn’t consider the electrical outlets of campus, the campus was built over 60 years ago. When the school was built they didn’t consider how the world was going to be like today, the world today is electronic-based and the gym that they built was built as an open-air gym.”  The problem with the A.C in the gym and the cafe is that there's not enough power to actually support it.  Dr. Laanui says that “We’re going to need to start a large capital project,  this includes Hawaiian Electric, and we’re going to run a power line starting from the street all the way to the school.” This seems like a good plan, and people are probably asking why they haven’t done this yet, and the reason is that this project will cost over a million dollars. 

Dr. Laanui has also brought back the burning of the D.M., but do people know how the burning of the D.M. actually started?  Well, Dr. Laanui’s class was the first class to ever do the burning of the D.M.  When sharing this story, he says that “In 1986, the student body president and homecoming committee decided that this school needs some tradition. I am watching now what is a classic movie, and that is Grease.  In the scene, they’re at a pep rally and there's this big ol' fire and I’m like why don’t we do a big fire like that? So I find a guy who becomes my best man at my wedding. When we were in high school he was like an eagle scout and I ask him, 'can we make a bonfire?' Now he’s like 'yah for sure I can make a bonfire', so he and his buddies go and get a bunch and scrap wood and pallets and build the very first bonfire."

"The way it gets lit is that he gets a road flare and he hooks it up to a fishing line that goes from the top of the 300 building down to the field. His idea was to light the road flare and let it swing down into the bonfire. A little thing that he forgot to consider is a little phenomenon called catenary, which is no line, however fine, pulled by a weight, however great, makes a line perfectly straight. Now when he drops the flare it doesn’t go over everyone's head, it kind of drops into the crowd about waist high and swings past everybody, and goes into the stack of wood.  After a few seconds there’s this big fire and that right there is the first ever burning of the D.M” After hearing this amazing story it’s cool to think about how everything at our school started. Although the burning of the D.M now isn’t like how it was before it’s still a really cool concept. The reason why it switched from wood to towels was that the fire would burn for hours to the point where people would be watering it till the next morning. "

When asked how Damien differs from other Catholic schools, Dr. La'anui proclaimed that he was "most proud of, crazy proud of,...the fact that [Damien] is a Title 1 School." A Title 1 School means that "40% of [the] campus is either near, at, or below the US poverty level." This resonates with Dr. La'anui because growing up, he also fits into the Title 1 category. He recalls opening up his cabinet to only find dog biscuits for food and counting pennies with his mother to pay for his tuition. He's proud that, despite most of Damien's students fitting into this category, 98% of Damien graduates go on to higher education. He acknowledges that Damien is more working class than other private schools, but the "street cred" and academic excellence combined give Damien students the ability to move between and communicate with different social classes in ways that few others can. 

"Because you come from Kalihi, because you come from Waipahu, because you come from Waimanalo, Waianae, Nanakuli, Kailua, because you come from all these neighborhoods, you are grounded. And when you're grounded in that sense,...you can go as high as you want, but you can also keep it real because you're grounded." He brought up the term he coined, 'crowned up from the ground up.' "Few other schools can say that because, while other schools have Title 1 students, they don't have as many as us. The crucible we face together has forged us together, and that's what makes us Damien" Dr. Laanui explains.

When asked if he has any plans for the field, he recalled how it was when he attended Damien. There was a pipe sticking out near the 500 building on the dirt track that encircled the field. "It was like a little tiny hurdle. You had to be careful to be on the inside when you ran. You'd either have to hurdle that sucker or run around it." He understands that the shape of the field is a little unorthodox and brought up the fact that if it is turned to a 45° angle, an entire football field can fit there. But how would that football field assist Damien? How would that impact other sports? He wants to use facilities as best as they can to benefit every student's environment. While the field is up there on his list, it isn't at the top. At the top of his list "is making sure that every student here gets the richest…high school experience."

Dr. Laanui is also hoping for a haunted house for Halloween, a faculty and staff Christmas party to unite teachers, to pull off Prom, and to "forge new avenues." He wants to celebrate the final year of high school for the class of 2023, yet he also has to prepare for the 5th graders who may become Damien's sixth graders next year.  Dr. Laanui brought up how he has acquired different 'letters of recommendation' throughout his years that helped him apply to Damien. One is from a fellow member of the [Federal] Bureau [of Investigation], a cross on which his principal and a sixth-grade teacher took her oath to become a nun, and the third goes back to one of his fondest memories of Damien. 

When he was a senior, Dr. Laanui struggled in the Calculus course he took that year. He remembers sitting in the 200 building, looking out his window, waiting for his girlfriend at the time, (now wife,) to come onto campus in a blue Mustang.  He would constantly daydream in that class, so when called to the board for a problem, he would have no idea how to solve it.  The teacher noticed how distant he would be in that class.  However, Dr. La'anui was a senior who had already been accepted into a college.  His focus was on the future.   He moved on in life and into the FBI. 

Then, after many years, he had to write a speech for his then Special Agent in Charge, for a case where they had to arrest a fellow officer. That fellow officer was a Damien graduate. He felt conflicted, listening to his speech read while locking eyes with that Damien graduate.  He recalls it as one of his career's most serendipitous, heartbreaking moments. 

He returned to his office the next day to a letter from his Calculus teacher, whom he had not spoken to in over 30 years. His Calculus teacher wrote that the Damien community could understand the struggles he was going through but that they were incredibly proud of him and his career. "Damien does not stop. These Damien experiences do not end. They brought [him] here. Damien is just not one thing. Damien is you. What you do will be a Damien thing."