HANAMA‘ULU — Hundreds of people, most of them dressed in red T-shirts urging justice for Hawaiians, came together Saturday afternoon at King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School to say loud and clear they will not be a Red Sea divided. Trustee Chair
HANAMA‘ULU — Hundreds of people, most of them dressed in red T-shirts urging justice for Hawaiians, came together Saturday afternoon at King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School to say loud and clear they will not be a Red Sea divided.
Trustee Chair Diane Plotts said, “Tuesday was not a good day…(but)”Kamehamea is pulling support from all over the community.”
She admitted saying “hell no” to any compromise or settlement on the issue.
“We are going to fight for our preference policy,” Plotts told the gathering sitting inside and standing outside of the elementary school cafeteria.
The gathering was held to offer information on the outcome of last week’s court decision against Kamehameha Native Hawaiians-only admission’s policy. It was followed by a rally and march that stretched along Kuhio Highway from the school north to Kapule Highway with about 1,000 persons reflecting a cross section of the community taking part, many holding signs.
According to Kamehameha Schools officials, alumni and supporters, they will fight the decision in the courts and will not compromise the mission of the school nor the future of Hawaiian youth and culture.
Colleen Wong, vice-president of the school’s legal department and a 1975 graduate told the crowd yesterday the school had solid legal options.
The chief among them is to file a petition to appeal the decision en banc, which is French for “in the bench,” meaning a decision by the full court of all the appeals judges or before a panel of 11 judges.
“It’s the wrong decision, that’s the only way to categorize it,” she said.
Wong said there was a 21-day stay from the time of the decision, Aug. 2, whereby everything was status quo.
“The law did not serve justice to the moral and ethical fiber of this place,” an impassioned Kamehameha School trustee Nainoa Thompson told the gathering
“I feel like we failed you. But stay with us we will win this thing. Ain’t no way we’re going to lose,” Thompson said. “We have got to get together, too often we are divided at the wrong time.”
A three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week ruled by a 2-1 margin that the practice at the school violates federal civil-rights law (dating back to the end of the Civil War pertaining to race in contracts).
It is unclear if the school receives federal funding for any of its programs. The Kamehameaha Schools system is backed by a legacy worth hundreds of millions of dollars left by Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a descendent of Kamehameha, in the nineteenth century.
The ruling struck down Kamehameha Schools’ long-standing policy of giving admission preference to Native Hawaiians.
The judicial panel also found the policies to be illegal because they barred admission of those who are a “non-preferred race.”
“It just hurts the heart of the community,” Harriet Yoshino said of the court’s decision. “(I hope) we are not looking at the demise of the school.”
According to school officials, more than 12,000 turned out Saturday morning for a rally on O‘ahu, while on the Big Island, police allowed supporters to march even though they reportedly did not have a permit, and rallies were held in the Kona area and in the Hilo area. A late afternoon rally was also scheduled on Maui, which has a state-of-the art Kamehameha Schools campus in Kula.
The lawsuit was brought against the school by an unidentified non-Hawaiian student, identified only as a male seeking admission for his senior year, whose application for admission to the school was turned down in 2003.
Immediately after the decision last week, Kamehameha Schools officials said the school will seek a review of the case before the entire 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
If and when an appeal is made, things would remain as they were at the school until the appeal was adjudicated, Wong said.
Rep. Ezra Kanoho, himself a Kamehameha graduate, said there was supposed to be “justice for the oppressed.” He said the two judges in San Francisco forgot that principle in this case.
Kanoho also linked anti-Hawaiian rights decisions to Republican / conservative administrations. He pointed out that the judge who voted in favor of Kamehameha was an appointee of former President Bill Clinton. The other justices were appointees of former President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush, respectively.
Wong confirmed that 16 of the 25 9th U.S. Circuit Court justices were Democrats. Chief Judge Mary Schroeder, 65, who was nominated by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1979, would sit on an en banc appeals panel, but the choices of the other judges would be done by lottery.
Wong said there was no guarantee who would be selected to such a panel.
Some Native Hawaiians asserted the court action underscored the need for all Hawaiians to come together to support the passage of the Akaka bill to give federal recognition to Native Hawaiians. Without such protection afforded by the approval of the bill, more Hawaiian programs and entitlements could be lost, critics of the court ruling said.
