Student arguments and fights tend to flare up about this time of year as students grow restless in the days leading up to school breaks, police and education officials said yesterday.

Several such incidents have been reported in the last few days, including three in one day last week at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School that resulted in 11 arrests and suspensions, two fights at Farrington High School last week and an incident yesterday at or around Wai'anae High that resulted in one arrest.

School officials have noticed more incidents near school vacations, particularly toward the end of the year, said state Department of Education spokes-man Greg Knudsen.

"We do feel that the older students at high schools ... tend to get a bit restless before the end of the school year," Knudsen said. "It is the week before spring break. ... I don't know if it's that rock solid in terms of you can just predict that there will be trouble this time of year, but it has happened before. In terms of things that we do to try to calm that restlessness, there are more reminders out to the students ... what the consequences are if they get into trouble during the year.

"It's all the more reason for the administration and teachers to work on keeping control, knowing that the students may be more restless," he said, adding that vigilance needs to be maintained at schools at all times of the year.

Nanakuli High and Intermediate principal Levi Chang, who suspended 11 students who were arrested last week after a fight, recognizes the potential for flare-ups. He said he will likely have extra security on hand Friday, the day before students are off on spring break. The school usually beefs up security the day before breaks, he said.

"It's just that if anything would happen, it would be on that last day," he said.

Other schools also have had disruptions recently.

A police officer responded to an incident at or around Wai'anae High School yesterday, resulting in the arrest of one individual on suspicion of two counts of harassment, police said. It was unclear if the person arrested was a student. Wai'anae High School principal JoAnn Kumasaka could not be reached for comment.

Two fights also broke out Friday at Farrington High School, prompting a lockdown. Knudsen said the school has hired five additional security guards to monitor the perimeter of the campus this week. School counselors and other staff also have been meeting with parents and even spoke to ministers in the area "so the nonviolent message could be shared with church-going students on Sunday," he said.

Knudsen said Farrington principal Catherine Payne also distributed a memo — which was read to Farrington students yesterday morning — that said the two fights on Friday involved four different gangs.

"No one was seriously hurt, but situations like this endanger everyone on campus and hurt the reputation of our school," she said in the memo. Payne called on students to help keep the campus safe and said students involved in the fights will face serious discipline, including possibly being banned from campus this year.

Payne couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, but shortly after two fights in the area last September, she said there had been a "huge increase in gang recruitment and gang presence in the whole community from here to Waipahu to 'Ewa."

Police Maj. Michael Moses of District 8, which covers Kapolei, 'Ewa and Wai'anae, said there doesn't appear to be an upward trend in school violence. But he added: "Every time we start getting close to one of our breaks — with the spring break coming up — for some reason, arguments erupt at school."

It could be student restlessness, or particularly before summer vacation, "kids try to settle whatever differences they have before the break," he said.

In general, there doesn't appear to be a growing trend in school fights, Knudsen said.

"We do seem to be going through a spurt, but I wouldn't call it a trend," he said, adding that such incidents are an exception, not the norm.

"You're not seeing that across the state. It's here and there, and on occasion," he said. "The schools are in general very safe."

In the meantime, schools are doing what they can to be proactive.

Nanakuli principal Chang said school officials plan to meet this week with parents of the students involved in last week's incident, as well as the students themselves, to try to resolve the problem. The school also continues to focus on character education during brief daily bulletins on closed-circuit TVs on campus, the parent-community networking coordinator meets with parents about inappropriate behavior, and additional security is brought on campus when deemed necessary to deter incidents.

"We do all those things that most schools do," he said. "But when you look at these incidents, they're a very minute, small population of our enrollment. ... The majority of the student body are good kids."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.