Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-03-23
Central Union
PLANS TO help
MAYNARD GIRLS
Nine Lines of Work Suggested
to Aid Local Delinquent and
Deficient Children

| diseased a girl may be. our cOmmun-
lily gives her freedom at the chronol-
! oGical age or Is years II is wrong
| 10 let go the aids OF the juvenile court
and Of institutions at the very time
when our care and direction should
| be redoubled"
Thus declared Hiss Agnes E. May
| nart, girls probation officer, in an ad-
dress to a large and interested aud
Hence in Central Union church last
night The meeting discussed at
| length the question of what Honolulu
shall do for its mentally deficient and
| maynard children. Miss Maynard
and Miss Sadie c. Sterritt. superin-
tendent of the girls industrial school,
gave their views of the subject and
stated their answers TO the question
in interesting talks.
In order to obtain results, the men,
| beFs Of the church who attended the
meeting decided to carry out nine
separate lines of work as follows:
Choose Lines of Work.
To have the age of majority of wo-
| men raised to u years; to work
for the appointment of follOw-up
officer for the industrial school girls;
to endeavor to have a woman truant
officer provided for; to have estab-
lished a permanent home for defec-
tive children; TO institute at the Col
lege of Hawaii physiological tests
where the mentality of backward
children may be investigated by the
Bivet method; to work for classes in
the public schools for the mentally
defective; establishment of trade
school for girls: establishment of
factory for the weaving of lauhala,
steps toward having the hala trees
conserved, and using the appropria-
ton for a detention home for the fur
therance of this object.
Miss Maynard, who spoke first,
stated that hospital treatment may
make a child who seems defective,
practically normal if the defect is
physical only. Physiological tests.
she pointed out, would be only too
welcome in the local public schools.
and in this connection, added that
malnutrition and anaemia sometimes
produce an effect similar to mental
deficiency. 49,.
Boosts School Lunches.
big step in the latter direction.
Miss Maynard said, would be the serv-
ing of school lunches She explained
that many children go to school with
out any breakfast, and that their
luncheon sometimes consists only of
food purchased from perambulating
lunch wagon The delinquent girl, |
she said, is nearly always a truant
from school, and truant probably |
for the reason that she does not like |
to go to school. She hates school and
1t does not interest her.
AIiss Maynard advocated the estab- |
lishment of school census and a
woman truant officer for girls. She
stated that too often parents are at
fault for the delinquency of children
and. for this reason, she added, she
would like to see them held respon-
sible in the courts. Parents are often
cruel, and this, too, accounts for the
delinquency of their children, she
said Some children, she continued,
are far safer in the park where the
hand is playing at night, than in |
their tenement homes.
Parents Often to Blame.
Owing to harshness of parents"
Miss Maynard said, for some of
them are brutal at times. or to de-
sire for relief from restraint, the girl
without a foundation of good home
training often falls the victim of the
lawless, wicked man who puts upon
her the entire responsibility of her
downfall.
The work which is being done by
the industrial school for Maynard andI
delinquent girls was fully outlined by
Miss Sterritt, who urged that steps
be taken toward having the age of
majority of women in this territory
raised TO q years. At the present
time, she added, the school has the |
girls for only about two years, and |
this is not long enough She also
urged provisions for a folIow!up Off
eer--a woman who might watch and
guide the girls after they leave the
reform school. A great many of the |
girls are virtually lost after they
leave the school on account of the
lack of this advice and guidance, she
declared
The establishment of a factory for
the manufacture of lauhala mats and
hats and other articles which find
ready sale here, was a suggestion adj |
ranced by Miss Sterritt. AS result
of the suggestion, DR.. Doremus Sued.
der viii be asked to appoint a commit. !
tee of five persons to investigate the |
project and report at a future meeting
of church members. "