"Its good, its still the first day so we are getting used to it," freshman Mahealani Kaukau said.
"Seeing them in the hallway is going to be different," junior Nicolas Angoco said.
Young girls grades 6-9 now wear plaid skirts and stylish neckties at the coed school.
"My dad told me about coed but I didn’t believe him at first," 8th grader Taylor Labanon said. "This school is a lot bigger than what our old school was cause our old school was a lot smaller, everyone knew each other."
School officials say the economic downturn prompted the change. 65 girls have joined the ranks of purple and gold. In the fall a total 440 boy and girls will attend class at the Kalihi school.
"And we will be able to have other things that we don’t have like our own girl cheerleaders, we will be able to have some music, choral groups and our music ministry will now have girls," Damien Memorial School President Bernard Ho said.
A Clarence T.C. Ching foundation grant will also bring added changes to the school.
"So we will be constructing a brand new boys and girls locker room and showers and facilities for judo and wrestling and music room administration building and library," Ho said.
The school enlarged the women’s restroom, made adjustments to class size and added more sections for students.
"I thought they were just going to stick with the tradition but a lot of schools are going coed I guess," 8th grader Mari Alice said.
Alice is no stranger to being surrounded by boys, the flag football player was the only female player on her team.
"If girls can play a male dominate sport than they could probably do other male dominate things just the same," she said.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
