Editor’s note: These letters were sent in from Annalise Klein’s eighth grade class at Konawaena Middle School, who wrote the following:
Editor’s note: These letters were sent in from Annalise Klein’s eighth grade class at Konawaena Middle School, who wrote the following:
My name is Annalise Klein, and I teach eighth grade science and current events at Konawaena Middle School. My current events class has spent the quarter learning about the different parts of a newspaper and how to read it effectively. We read and analyze West Hawaii Today at least twice a week.
Recently, my students studied Ellison Onizuka and the 30th anniversary of the Challenger launch. After reading Onizuka’s 1980 Konawaena High School Commencement Address, they read WHT’s front page article “Onizuka remembered.” They composed the following “letters to the editor.”
Three of my students who were interested in trying to get their letter published in the paper had their parents sign a permission form, granting me permission to send the letters on to your office. I hope at least some of them are able to be shared with the greater community.
Onizuka museum needs to relocate
I’m in the eighth grade and we have been learning about Ellison Onizuka in the newspaper.
Honestly, I think they should have canceled the trip. If the shuttle wasn’t working right, I would have told NASA that I won’t come. Onizuka took a big risk. Many people know him, and he is remembered most in Hawaii. There are also many places in Hawaii named after him, as an example, the Konawaena High School gym and there is a museum in remembrance of Ellison Onizuka.
The museum is going to be closed down soon and I feel like people need to know about this story so they should relocate. They should remember him for his big risk he took to go on the ship even though there was something wrong with it. They should build a place in front of the airport to relocate the museum in the area. I hope the best for the family of Ellison Onizuka and hope they can find a new area to relocate.
Sincerely,
Angelina Watai
Keep the Ellison Onizuka legacy
What comes to mind when you hear the name Ellison Onizuka? A guy who went to space and died 15 seconds after take off, a memorable guy in Hawaii because he grew up in Kealakekua and graduated from Konawaena High School, a strong loving guy, who had a wife and kids.
Onizuka had a museum that honors him, his family donated all of his astronaut work things such as his suit. On his 30th year anniversary, it was let out to the public that the museum will not be in the remodeling that they are doing. Where are all those things going to go?
I mean, it’s only been 30 years, and his family wants everyone to remember him. How many people do you know who is an astronaut who graduated from a high school in Hawaii? To me that’s pretty amazing. It makes me know and feel that I can be way more than what I thought I could be.
My suggestion is, since he graduated from Konawaena High School and the school named the gym after him, why don’t they at least put his suit in the gym and a biography about his story and why he is so important? That way more people will know his story and more people will remember him.
I’m a student at Konawaena Middle School, and I feel like all the Hawaiian culture and history isn’t being taken care of. We should at least keep the museum of the remembrance of Ellison Onizuka.
Sincerely,
Alana Dickens
Don’t put it away!
Here we go again.
We need a lot of people to understand that they are being uncaring because we’re putting away one of Hawaii’s most famous people. My name is Daniel Vierra. I’m 13 years old, and I go to Konawaena Middle School, and I just want share my opinion about the Ellison Onizuka Museum moving.
I think the solution is to raise money so we can move the museum to a different place in town and not put it away in storage. It’s so that we don’t disrespect him. Also, I still did not see the museum yet, and I want the future generation to see it. I’m saying this so we can remember him in the future. There might be young kids who might want go to space and experience what he seen or said.
One quote from Ellison Onizuka is, “Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.” This means to me that he wants people to experience what he seen.
Sincerely,
Daniel Vierra