FIVE YEARS AT SAINT MARK LUTHERAN SCHOOL. MONTHS OF BULLYING. A CHILD IN CRISIS. AND THE SCHOOL'S…read moreRESPONSE WAS TO DISMISS HER.
1 Star
As a father, I never imagined writing this review about a school my daughter attended for five years. Unfortunately, our family's experience with Saint Mark Lutheran School in Kāneʻohe has left me deeply concerned about its ability to protect children, address bullying, and hold administrators accountable.
Beginning in October 2025, my sixth-grade daughter experienced persistent bullying that escalated over several months. Incidents included verbal harassment, racial slurs, intimidation, threats, and physical aggression. In one incident, she was held down, had her shoes forcibly removed, and was threatened by other students.
The school was repeatedly informed.
On December 7, 2025, I formally notified school leadership that my daughter was afraid to attend school because of bullying. I requested classroom observation, intervention with the offending students, and clear protective measures. Over the following months, my wife and I raised concerns in at least half a dozen written communications and escalations.
Despite these warnings, the bullying continued.
When my daughter reported being verbally abused, a teacher reportedly told her she needed to do a better job of solving her own problems.
Imagine teaching your child to report bullying to responsible adults, only to have those adults tell her to handle it herself.
The emotional consequences were devastating.
By January 2026, my daughter's distress had become so severe that she expressed thoughts of self-harm. We sought assistance from the Honolulu Police Department, and she required professional evaluation and counseling from an adolescent psychologist.
HPD involvement was documented under Citizen Report IDs 38768 and 38797. Our understanding of HPD's assessment was that Saint Mark was "administratively ill-equipped to resolve the issue."
My wife, a tenured professor of education at the University of Hawaiʻi, recognized serious deficiencies in the school's handling of these incidents. Our family escalated complaints to Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod School Ministry and its California-Nevada-Hawaii District leadership, requesting external oversight and formal review.
Still, the bullying continued.
On March 6, 2026, following months of harassment and subsequent threats, my daughter finally fought back during a confrontation with another student. A male student was injured.
I do not condone fighting. We teach our children to seek peaceful solutions, respect authority, and trust responsible adults. But when a child repeatedly seeks protection and that protection fails, the adults responsible must examine their own conduct before placing all responsibility on that child.
To our knowledge, the children responsible for the preceding bullying and threats received no comparable punishment.
Seven days later, on March 13, Saint Mark dismissed my daughter.
After FIVE YEARS of enrollment, months of documented complaints, police involvement, and a serious mental-health crisis, the school communicated its decision by LETTER.
Not even a telephone call.
The child whose parents had spent months requesting protection was the child removed from school.
But what troubles me most is what happened afterward.
As of this review, not one member of Saint Mark's leadership has contacted our family to inquire about our daughter's health, emotional recovery, or general well-being since her dismissal.
Not one.
For an institution that promotes Christian values, compassion, and the development of children, that silence is extraordinarily difficult to reconcile with its stated mission.
Bullying can occur at any school. What distinguishes responsible institutions is how they respond. Parents should reasonably expect effective intervention, appropriate supervision, consistent discipline, and meaningful protection when a child's psychological well-being is at risk.
In our experience, Saint Mark failed those expectations.
I am not writing this because my daughter was disciplined. I am writing because the school had MONTHS to address the circumstances that ultimately led to the confrontation, and I believe its repeated failure to intervene meaningfully contributed to the outcome.
Five years of trust ended with a dismissal letter and silence regarding our child's welfare.
To parents considering Saint Mark, I strongly encourage you to ask detailed questions about bullying policies, student safety, mental-health protocols, disciplinary consistency, and what happens when children repeatedly report harassment.
Ask not simply whether policies exist, but whether they are actually enforced.
When our daughter needed the adults at Saint Mark the most, the institution failed her. And when she finally stood up for herself, the institution removed her.
One star. I cannot recommend this school based on our family's experience.
