Imagine how you might feel if your child was placed on a waiting list for admission into one of Hawai‘i’s best private schools while another, unqualified child was admitted. You have just stepped into Bernard Carvalho’s shoes. Carvalho, head of
Imagine how you might feel if your child was placed on a waiting list for admission into one of Hawai‘i’s best private schools while another, unqualified child was admitted.
You have just stepped into Bernard Carvalho’s shoes.
Carvalho, head of the county Offices of Community Assistance, is also president of the Kamehameha Schools Association of Kaua‘i, the group of parents of Kamehameha Schools students.
“My son is there. My daughter is on the waiting list right now,” said Carvalho, when asked to discuss his feelings about a federal judge’s order that Kamehameha admit a non-Hawaiian boy into the school.
That boy, Kapa‘a resident Brayden Kekoa Mohica-Cummings, 12, a seventh-grader, started school yesterday, as a crowd of Native Hawaiian parents, alumni and others protested outside the school’s gate in Kapalama on O‘ahu.
“I’m kind of upset about how the whole thing came about,” said Carvalho, adding that the local association will form some plan of action, though he isn’t sure what yet.
He’ll meet with his board to determine that course of action, he said.
“I’m disappointed to see that the school is being forced to bring in a non-Hawaiian when there are many Hawaiian students who could be brought in,” said Randy Hee, vice president of the Kaua‘i branch of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association.
“Until we run out of those (Native Hawaiian students interested in attending Kamehameha), I think Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s will should be honored.”
Bishop’s will created Kamehameha Schools, intended to be a perpetual institution for schooling Native Hawaiian students. Admission preference is given to Native Hawaiian students.
“I’m disappointed by what seems to be some deception on the part of the mother,” Hee said about apparent misinformation on the part of Kalena Santos, the boy’s mother, indicating on her son’s school application form that the boy is Native Hawaiian, while he is not.
“You lie, you should not be allowed to get away with it. If there was deception, the student shouldn’t be allowed to attend,” Hee said.
“I don’t blame the kid. I blame the parents,” said Hee. The boy seems enthusiastic about being there, and he should be, he continued.
“I’m not happy about it.”
The alumni association hasn’t met to discuss the situation yet, Hee added.
But some are looking at the local association bylaws to see if Mohica-Cummings could be eligible for scholarships or other forms of financial aid or other types of aid both the parents’ association and alumni association provide to outstanding Kamehameha School students and graduates, Hee continued.
As far as the boy’s treatment by schoolmates, teachers and others at the school, Hee has no doubts.
“I’m sure Kamehameha will treat him well. I would expect that out of Kamehameha.”
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
