Teacher arrested for violating traveler quarantine
HONOLULU — A Hawaii high school teacher was arrested for violating the 14-day traveler quarantine the state mandated to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Agents from the Hawaii attorney general’s office arrested Mark Alan Cooper last week. Cooper, 48, of Mililani, returned to Honolulu from Florida on July 27. An acquaintance spotted him at a post office a few days later, the state said.
The acquaintance reported him to a citizen’s group that helps track down people who violate the quarantine. The group then reported him to authorities.
Cooper, a teacher at Campbell High School, traveled to Florida because of an illness in his family, his attorney, Rustam Barbee said Wednesday.
After his arrest, he resumed his quarantine period, which ended Monday, Barbee said.
Cooper was arrested a week after teachers statewide returned to work. It’s not clear if he had been on campus before his arrest. State education officials didn’t immediately comment on his arrest.
Student instruction begins Monday, with most schools starting the year online.
“Mr. Cooper has never had COVID-19 and has never infected anyone,” Barbee said.
A court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.
According to court records he was cited in April for violating emergency orders by allegedly walking in a park that was closed because of the pandemic.
Vlogger posts apology video for breaking Hawaii quarantine
HONOLULU — A YouTube vlogger who was arrested for violating a state quarantine rule released a court-ordered public service announcement on social media.
Mika Salamanca, 20, posted the online message that included an apology as a condition of her deferred guilty plea.
The video script required approval by state judicial officials before it was posted, court records said.
Salamanca was arrested July 24 on an accusation of breaking the state’s 14-day quarantine rule after arriving in Honolulu from Manila.
Gov. David Ige established a mandatory quarantine for all travelers arriving to Hawaii from outside the state as part of the effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The social media influencer from the Philippines said in her video she was sorry for breaking the quarantine and apologized to the people of Hawaii and her fellow Filipinos.
Her case could be a lesson for viewers to be good citizens and obey legal orders related to the coronavirus pandemic, Salamanca said. She urged people in Hawaii to wear face masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing.
The court gave her the opportunity to make the video in an attempt to clear her name, Salamanca said.
Salamanca was also ordered to pay $575 in court fees and serve six months of probation in her Alabama home. She was barred from returning to Hawaii during the pandemic.
Ige reinstated a requirement effective Tuesday for people traveling between the islands to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Travelers arriving on Oahu from the state’s other islands will not need to quarantine, but people arriving in the other counties from different islands will.
