Hawaii Reacts as 9th Circuit Court Rules Against Kamehameha Schools

The big news here in Hawaii today is that two out of three judges on a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled against the admission policy of the Kamehameha Schools.

Since the school's founding in 1887, admissions requirements have included the necessity of demonstrating physical (or hanai) descent from a native Hawaiian ancestor.

The purpose of this, of course, was the founder's desire (Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, great–granddaughter and last royal descendant of Kamehameha the Great) to assure the availability of quality education for her native Hawaiian people and to perpetuate their distinctive culture and heritage.

Few people in Hawaii have ever had much of a problem with this. The school is private and self-supporting, drawing from an estate fund that currently holds somewhere near $10 billion (yes, I said, billion!). There are plenty of other quality schools, both public and private, for everyone else to attend and, of course, even the 3,000 or so students (preschool through 12th grade) who presently attend Kamehameha Schools represent only a small fraction of the native Hawaiian population that have applied and not been accepted due to space limitations.

For most of us, whether haole or kama'aina, the Kamehameha Schools represents a cultural institution where native Hawaiians can celebrate their heritage in a setting that offers every opportunity to succeed and to attain excellence in pursuit of even higher education after graduation.

In this, the Kamehameha Schools presents a stark and contrasting alternative to the demographic reality of poverty, disease (including diabetes, alcoholism and drug abuse), criminal behavior, teen pregnancy, low educational test scores and social alienation and displacement the plagues the native Hawaiian population as a whole.

I suppose that there is a "letter of the law" that must be interpreted and applied to situations like this.......and, when someone decides to test the legality of such an admissions policy in the courts, some court, somewhere, must render judgment.....but, even so, I do not believe that the 14th Amendment and subsequent interpretations and applications of that Amendment were ever really constructed with the unique and historic cultural context of the Kamehameha Schools in mind.

Isn't there somewhere, a "spirit of the law" that can applied or considered? Clearly, removing the racial requirement for admission would not only destroy the heart and soul of the Schools but remove its very raison d'etre.

It would become just one more private school alongside Punahou, Iolani, Mid-Pacific, St. Louis and the like. Except, unlike the others, the Kamehameha Schools will have had its unique identity stolen from it by a cadre of judges with little or no personal understanding of vast and complex array of historical and cultural circumstances surrounding this particular institution.

Here in Hawaii, there is far more at stake in this than a simple legal verdict.

The very authority of Federal Courts to act on such a matter is bitterly disputed by many in the native Hawaiian community. Since the day that the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in a coup d'etat headed by a group of non-Hawaiians who desired to have Hawaii annexed to the United States, native Hawaiians have believed that their land and sovereignty as a nation were stolen from them and later, illegally annexed to the United States as the Territory of Hawaii.

There is enough discernable injustice to be found in even the most pro-annexation texts to lead even neutral and little-affected folks like me to lean towards some measure of preferential treatment for the native Hawaiian people who still live here.

Most native Hawaiians were, and still are, strong supporters of Hawaiian statehood and are commited and patriotic citizens of the United States. But, despite what may appear to be the "letter of the law," the abolition of the Kamehameha Schools as a unique refuge and haven for the cultural and social heritage of the native Hawaiian people would be viewed by the vast majority of folks in Hawaii (whatever their racial or ethnic background) as one more injustice visited upon a people who once ruled with generosity and welcome to those who now rule over them.

Why can't the spirit of aloha, which has been given so freely to the world by the Hawaiian people, be returned to them as legal gesture of respect and appreciation for their unique place in our national culture, history and heritage?

As the legal appeal winds its way through the entire 9th Circuit Court and then to the Supreme Court itself, I hope that some legal interpretation can be found, through the deliberation of thoughtful and discerning justices, that will restore and affirm the historic admission policies of the Kamehameha Schools.

Should yesterday's ruling stand, the native Hawaiian people, the state of Hawaii, the United States and the world itself will the the poorer as a result.

Sometimes an otherwise good law, when placed in a new context, begins to stink. Today, in Hawaii, we began to notice the smell.

Note: For those who might be interested in reading the reaction to the court ruling by those associated with the Kamehameha Schools, you can find their written comments here.