Salt Lake educator charged with sexually assaulting minor

SALT LAKE, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A longtime educational assistant at Salt Lake Elementary School has been charged with sexually assaulting a minor.

Greg Hirashiki, 46, was charged with three counts of third-degree sexual assault. He's free on $100,000 bail.

According to court documents, Hirashiki fondled a boy under 14 on three occasions. It's not known where the alleged assaults took place, but the criminal complaint filed against Hirashiki indicates they happened between January and September.

State Department of Education officials confirmed Hirashiki was on leave for about two weeks prior to his arrest. The educational assistant has worked at the school for the past 16 years.

It's unclear whether the alleged victim was a student at Salt Lake Elementary School.

Parents of students at Salt Lake Elementary say they were disappointed they didn't hear about the incident from DOE officials sooner.

"You trust these schools to bring your children and to hear something like that is horrible," said parent Elizabeth Holly. "It should concern everybody and parents like myself should know about it, but we were never informed about it."

Jerrazzaylyn Paisi, another parent, said the school should have done a better job notifying parents.

"It's not right for us to not get any notification, because my children go to this school. I sit with them at breakfast, but after that I'm like what's going on?" she said.

On Tuesday, a letter was sent home with students, though by that time most parents had already learned about the allegations online or on the news.

The memo from the Department of Education does not specifiy that Hirashiki was arrested for sexual assault of a minor, but refers to the ongoing investigation as a "conduct incident."

"Of course you're always very cautious and nervous and upset when something like that happens,"  parent Cecilia McMoore. "Hopefully, between the parents, the community and the school, communications can be made a little bit better and together we can protect our kids."

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