Kamehameha plans 'vigorous' defense

By Mike Gordon and David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writers

Kamehameha Schools officials said yesterday they will fight a lawsuit that challenges its renewed Hawaiians-only admissions policy.

But John Goemans, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court on behalf of an unidentified non-Hawaiian student, said that the issues are straightforward and he believes the matter can be resolved without going to trial.

The lawsuit, filed with the aid of attorney Eric Grant of Sacramento, Calif., argues that federal civil-rights laws prohibit private schools from denying admission on the basis of race and that Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy is racially discriminatory on its face.

Goemans, who cited similar grounds in filing a lawsuit in 1997 on behalf of Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice and then withdrew it because of a lack of money to pursue the matter, said he will ask for a court ruling in favor of his client without the case going to trial.

School officials, however, said they are standing by the Hawaiians-only policy.

"Although we have yet to see a copy of the complaint, Kamehameha Schools believes that its admissions policy is consistent with applicable law," said Constance Lau of Kamehameha Schools' board of trustees.

"We intend to vigorously defend our policy of giving preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry, and we are confident that we will prevail."

Three years ago Goemans and other lawyers represented Rice's challenge of Hawaiians-only voting for trustees of the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs. In that issue, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "Native Hawaiian" is a racial and not a political or tribal status.

Kamehameha Schools generated howls of protest from alumni and Native Hawaiian activists last year when it admitted a non-Hawaiian eighth-grader to the Maui campus.

Critics accused Kamehameha of not doing enough to encourage Native Hawaiian applicants. This year Kamehameha returned to its Hawaiians-only policy.

In the just-concluded admissions season, Kamehameha Schools' recruitment campaign was designed to attract more Native Hawaiian applicants for the Neighbor Island campuses as they expand their enrollment.

Goemans said that because of concerns about possible retaliation by Kamehameha students, their parents and the public, the lawsuit filed on Wednesday does not identify the boy and his mother.

Goemans said the student "applied two times" and was "found to be qualified," most recently for the 2003-04 school year, and was put on a waiting list both times.

The boy has never formally applied for admission, but when he does, he will have to show he has some amount of Hawaiian blood and it would be an "insurmountable hurdle," Goemans said.

"I don't know that the school knows who he is or that he is not at least part-Hawaiian," Goemans said.

He added, "This has nothing to do with sovereignty, there is no compelling government interest, it has nothing to do with the Akaka bill (to recognize Hawaiians as an indigenous people) — it is only about race-based discrimination."