99-065 Kauhale St.
Aiea, Hawaii, 96701
December 16, 2013
Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus
1887 Makuakane St.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
Dear Kamehameha Schools Kapalama,
I am not a student attending Kamehameha. I am currently a Sophomore at Moanalua High School, but a few years back, I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend some of the other summer and spring enrichment programs such as Ho’omaka’ika’i Explorations and Ipukukui. I had a great experience attending both and I am very grateful for that opportunity. I am not a student there, but I have an older brother who was recently a 2013 graduate. For all four years since he was accepted as a freshman, the school has been very good and very helpful towards my family and my brother’s success. From financial aiding to all the opportunities and doors that were opened for my brother, with the help of the programs, clubs, and extra curricular activities they had to offer, my family and I have been very thankful, even to this day. That is why my family and I strive to participate in certain events such as Ho’olaulea as a way to give back to the school.
However, I am very concerned about the admissions policy. I find it very difficult to understand that admissions was offered to a non-Hawaiian to the Maui campus in 2010 when I believe, support and respect the legacy of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop -- her wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women. If I will never be admitted to the Kamehameha Schools in my 11th and 12th grade year, I wish the very best and prefer to know that admissions to those of Hawaiian ancestry to be admitted first to any of the Kamehameha Schools campuses. I find it very appalling at the acceptance rate per district for the O’ahu Kapalama campus In Although a federal appeals court appeared to have derailed a challenge to Kamehameha Schools’ Hawaiians-only admission policy (Honolulu Star Bulletin, Mar 4, 2010), it is not a guarantee that there will be no other lawsuits in the future.
I would like the schools to stand firm and every way to invite a child of Hawaiian ancestry first before a non-Hawaiian. After the incident of the non-Hawaiian admitee. The only way Kamehameha can avoid the risk may be to eliminate all tuition, the vehicle of the legal argument that the schools discriminate against non-Hawaiians.
Although the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the lawsuits against the Kamehameha Schools to remain anonymous ned about the fact as a Native Hawaiian high school student as myself,understanding Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women through education and also understanding her wishes left in her will, In keeping with it her wishes, I understand Kamehameha Schools (KS) strives to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law. In the Princess’s will as stated as the thirteenth, “Wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the HawaiianIslands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha School.”
Although the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the lawsuits against the Kamehameha Schools to remain anonymous ned about the fact as a Native Hawaiian high school student as myself,understanding Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women through education and also understanding her wishes left in her will, In keeping with it her wishes, I understand Kamehameha Schools (KS) strives to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law. In the Princess’s will as stated as the thirteenth, “Wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the HawaiianIslands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha School.”
I am very disappointed that Kamehameha Schools has admitted yet another non-native Hawaiian to the school, when there are, indeed, many qualified native Hawaiians who have tried to get in without success. (“Third non-Hawaiian admitted to Kamehameha,” Star-Advertiser, July 10). I wholeheartedly agree with Wise Nicola Sr., and join in his concern about the school’s future admission policies and what that means in regard to the intent of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s will.
Native Hawaiians must always have preference. Like Mr. Nicola’s children, family and friends of mine have also tried repeatedly to get their children into Kamehameha, and have the only necessary “qualification”—they are native Hawaiians—and yet they have not been accepted into a school created for them.
Most of these children do well in school, are well-rounded with extracurricular activities such as band and sports, and yet, for whatever reason, they have been declined. I have heard so many sad stories of rejection, so when I hear that non-native Hawaiians have been accepted, I am outraged.
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