Kamehameha Schools trustees and officials give fellow trustee Nainoa Thompson, center, a standing ovation after his impassioned speech about Kamehameha Schools' being the center of healing in the Hawaiian community. From left, Robert Kihune, Diane Plotz, Doug Ing, Thompson, Constance Lau, Colleen Wong and Michael Chun. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Alumni plan protest of decision at school's gate

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

When 13-year-old Brayden Mohica-Cummings shows up for the first day of class this morning at Kamehameha Schools he has the assurance of headmaster Michael Chun that he'll be treated with respect, and receive the same warm welcome as all students.

But his first day of school will also be greeted by a spontaneous protest demonstration by alumni at 6:30 a.m. at the gates of the mountaintop school and a growing sense of rage within the Hawaiian community.

"I don't know how much more the Hawaiian people need to endure," said Pohai Ryan, president of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association. "This is just one more thing. All the Hawaiian entities and trusts must come together and educate the public that this is really about social justice. It's not about exclusion."

The fierce reaction came after yesterday's court order by federal judge David Ezra to temporarily allow a non-Hawaiian child to attend the school established by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop to educate Hawaiian children. The boy's mother, Kalena Santos, had argued that her hanai, or adoptive father, was Native Hawaiian. But in court yesterday, it was revealed that both mother and son have the word "Hawaiian" under race on their birth certificates.

While trustees vowed to continue the court fight to uphold their policies of "preference" for children of Native Hawaiian ancestry, their supporters angrily wondered about the ramifications of the decision.

"The judge said the child suffered a greater harm than Kamehameha. We don't buy into that as a rational argument," said Leroy Akamine, a 1952 Kamehameha graduate and a past president of the Alumni Association.

Trustees, alumni and Native Hawaiians filled Ezra's courtroom yesterday, including Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, who said the decision was unfair to Native Hawaiian children who still want to be admitted.

"Why aren't you asking why there is so much discrimination against Hawaiian children in the public school system," she said. "Kamehameha offers a chance to go to a school where we don't have to be ashamed of who we are. There are 48,000 Hawaiian children in the public system who would love to have that spot. They should be taken care of first."

Trustee Nainoa Thompson lashed out following yesterday's action allowing a non-Hawaiian into Kamehameha Schools: "This society has not dealt with this poverty and where it's come from in 200 years."

"Pau," Thompson said at the end of his speech, which drew a standing ovation from fellow trustees and Kamehameha administrators. Photos by Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It was a bad decision," said 20-year-old Mehana Ka'iama, a 2001 Kamehameha graduate who is organizing today's protest at the school gate "to show we're not happy."

Her mother, Manu Ka'iama, who directs the Native Hawaiian Leadership Project at UH, said the school should defy Ezra's order and refuse to allow the boy to attend class.

"It's one slot being used by someone who doesn't have a right to be there," she said. "They falsified records, and he got in illegally."

Yesterday trustees said only biological parentage matters, not adoption. For admittance, a student must submit birth certificates going back to a grandparent's generation to prove lineage.

While headmaster Chun said students, teachers and other staff are being apprised of the legal situation and the boy will be offered the same "supportive, nurturing, and caring learning environment" as other students, Kame'eleihiwa warned there will be children "with an attitude about this kid ... because their cousin or their brother or sister didn't get in and this child did and he's taking a spot. ..."

The anger began with a highly emotional Kamehameha Schools morning press conference in which trustee Nainoa Thompson received a standing ovation for an impassioned defense of the schools' preference policy as an attempt to address 200 years of injustice for Native Hawaiians.

"This society has not dealt with this poverty and where it's come from in 200 years," Thompson said. "It hasn't done it, but Kamehameha does. ... Look at the absentee rates, at the SAT scores, look at how our public schools are not meeting our need. Take away Kamehameha Schools and who is (meeting the need)?

"Make Kamehameha Schools like every other school, tear out its mission and I ask the question, 'Who's going to pay for the poverty? Who is going to pay for the increasing ignorance? Who is going to pay for the homelessness?' "

But Jill Nunokawa, a civil rights counselor for the University of Hawai'i, said Kamehameha trustees may have brought this court challenge upon themselves when they changed their admission criteria last year and permitted a non-Hawaiian eighth-grader to enroll at its Maui campus.

"Basically Kamehameha Schools made a determination that they were going to make it a preference for Native Hawaiians and that made it a race preference instead of sticking to the will of the princess and the status of Hawaiians as indigenous people," she said. "They opened up the door, and everyone's walking through."

Nunokawa said at the time the trustees said they were making the change to avoid lawsuits "and all they really did was instigate lawsuits." She predicted more suits are coming, and the final answer may lie with the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Now they're right in the middle of it. At some stage the courts are going to make the determination."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.