Boar killed on campus serves as culture lesson
By Tom Finnegan
tfinnegan@starbulletin.com

WAIMEA, Kauai » At 120 pounds and sporting 1 1/2-inch tusks and an arrow through its shoulder, the injured wild boar ran through the Waimea High School campus yesterday as it if were recess time.

But it was no laughing matter to school officials and students who were chased by the frenzied animal before a teacher reluctantly ended it by putting a metal stake through its head.

"We had no choice," said Bill De Costa, a special-education teacher.

"It was a real dangerous situation," De Costa had said earlier. "It chased three girls up a classroom staircase."

The boar likely came from nearby hunting grounds. At first De Costa and his students tried to woo the boar off campus, but it continually charged them.

That's when De Costa picked up a stake from part of an old fence and waited for the boar to charge.

Two boys from Niihau, both experienced hunters, dove for the boar's hind legs and pinned it to the ground, De Costa said.

"We took care of business the fastest way," said De Costa, an avid pig hunter. "In this kind of crisis and dangerous situation, you don't have time to think, just react on impulse."

With the boar out of the way, De Costa discovered that not all school officials were happy with his actions.

"I did what I thought was best," De Costa said. "I believe that there was no one else immediately available to do the job before this wild, wounded boar would attack and seriously hurt someone."

And it seems school officials now see it his way, scheduling a luau for today.

Putting the boar to good use fits right into the Hawaiian cultural curriculum he's currently teaching his students, De Costa said.

The boar allowed his students to learn Hawaiian culture "... not only through paper and pencil," he said.