East Oahu lawmakers are outraged following a report of a homeless man flashing a child at a neighborhood park on Friday.
Representative Gene Ward has a stern warning for the offender.
“Don’t come around our neighborhood if you expect to get away with this stuff,” he said.
The Kamiloiki Elementary School principal immediately sent out a letter to parents warning them of the incident.
The letter said the school received a call before the start of school Friday morning from someone who witnessed a “homeless” person expose himself to a child wearing a Kamiloiki School shirt at the adjoining park. The caller said she saw the man yelling at the kid. She said she intervened and called 911.
“Certainly we want to have compassion for the homeless and try to find a solution. But our first concern is the safety of our residents and particularly our children,” said Senator Sam Slom.
Both Slom and Ward say homelessness is a growing problem, even in Hawaii Kai.
“It shows that the numbers in Waikiki have expanded to the point where they’re exporting these individuals to various parts in our community,” said Ward.
Ward says he is upset because this isn’t the first time an incident like this has happened in their backyard.
In November 2013, Kaiser High School sent out an alert to parents after one of its students was groped as she was walking home from school.
“I don’t think it’s the same person, but if this is the same person, there should be some really swift action so this doesn’t happen again,” Ward said.
The homeless man described to Kamiloiki Elementary School officials couldn’t be found. The school beefed up security on campus for the day.
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