Last month, I mentioned that one of my former students, Tatiana Beasley, whom I met when I subbed @ Roosevelt High School in 2006, died in a car accident!
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-memory-of-tatiana-beasley.html
Now, I've come to find out another of my former students from the same neighborhood has died so young.
In this case, it is Makamae Ah Mook Sang.
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090819_Girls_death_sparks_search_for_man_24.html
Police and the family of a 15-year-old Papakolea girl who died after drinking at the home of a 24-year-old Hawaii Kai man are asking for help in finding him.
Makamae Ah Mook Sang had gotten her parents' permission to sleep over at her hula friend's house in Kahala after performing at Kamehameha Schools on July 29, said mother Tracy Ah Mook Sang.
Instead, she had gone to a party in Hawaii Kai, at the home of the 18-year-old girl's boyfriend's cousin.
"If we really had a clue or hint, we would not even let her go at all," said her mother.
The next morning the family received a call from the hospital where Makamae Ah Mook Sang died of alcohol poisoning.
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I remember hearing of this story on the Channel 2 news on 7/31/09, and the 1st name sounded familiar, but that news story didn't mention her school or her neighborhood, so I wasn't sure if it's the one that I met when I was subbing at Stevenson Middle School back in 2006-2007.
But just reading this week's Star Bulletin article, which mentioned that at the time of her death, Makamae was a student @ Roosevelt High School (where most Stevenson alumni go to high school), and lived in Papakolea, I know that was the same one!
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What I mostly remembered about Makamae was that she liked to talk a lot, even to the point where her classmates had to tell her to be quiet. I also remember needed to be corrected in pronouncing her 1st name! ( a common occurrence for substitute teachers having to memorize so many new names all in one day)
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I've only been a substitute teacher for 4 years, and already 2 of my former students died of alcohol-related incidents.
So much potential in both of those young women, never to be realized. So much accomplishments they'll never have the chance to achieve! So many sad memories for the young people of Papakolea, knowing that their young neighbors died so soon!
It is also a cautionary tale in resisting peer pressure in dealing with alcohol! It ain't as easy as it sounds, but the necessary things are NEVER easy!
Even if it means walking out on your friends as they mock you, do whatever you can to avoid the pitfalls of alcoholism and drug abuse!
Otherwise, you'll never get the chance to look back and say "I resisted peer pressure and lived to talk about it"
