Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2004 — Kamehameha settlement sparks heated response [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kamehameha settlement sparks heated response

By Derek Ferrar and Naomi Sodetani The decision last month by Kamehameha Schools trustees to settle a lawsuit challenging the school's Hawaiian-prefer-enee admissions policy has drawn strong reaction from the Hawaiian community. In late November, Kamehameha's trustees announced that they had reached a settlement deal to allow non-Hawaiian student Brayden Mohica-Cummings to continue to attend the school. "It's been a difficult decision," Board Vice-Chairman Nainoa Thompson told the press, "but we've made it." The settlement agreement, whieh was approved by U.S. District Judge David Ezra on Dec. 4, set off heated debate in the community — both about the school's decision and about the Hawaiian adoption tradition known as hānai. Mohica-Cummings, whose mother, Kalena Santos, was adopted by her Hawaiian stepfather, was admitted to Kamehameha this fall only to have the school rescind its offer when it discovered that Santos had misrepresented the boy as having Hawaiian blood. In an August emergency hearing, Ezra directed the school to admit Mohica-Cummings until the court could review the school's admissions policy. On Nov. 18, Ezra heard a motion to dismiss the suit, but before he issued a ruling, Kamehameha's trustees announced the deal

allowing Mohica-Cummings to remain at the school in exchange for the suit being dropped. In approving the settlement agreement, Ezra remarked that "ancient Hawaiian law" would support the assertion made by Santos that she and Brayden are Hawaiian under the hānai tradition. Hawaiians disappointed by the settlement reacted strongly to Ezra's statement. "How dare he?" asked Kaho'onei Panoke, vice president of the Hawaiian political-action group the 'īlio'uokalani Coalition. "Hānai does not mean that the child inherits your bloodline. His incorrect definition is very, very disrespectful." Others disagreed, however. Kawaikapuokalani Hewett, a kumu hula who has raised three hānai children, said that family ties by hānai are as strong as those by blood. "If that Hawaiian family stands up and says, 'This is my hānai daughter,' that's the beginning and the end for me," Hewett told the press. "If Hawaiians are not honoring our traditions, then are we Hawaiians?" Kamehameha's trustees defended their unanimous decision to settle, citing uncertainty over how Ezra might have ruled in the case and the need to focus on the likely appeal of a separate case, Doe v. Kamehameha, whieh they said was more likely to provide a strong legal precedent safeguarding the school's admissions party. That suit was summarily dismissed by another federal judge shortly before the settlement was reached in the Mohica-Cummings case, but attorneys for the anonymous Hawai'i

island plaintiff — who also represented MohieaCummings in his case — vowed to appeal. Kamehameha alumnus Roy Benham, who sits on school's board of advisers, said that the settlement served the best interest of the school, whieh "made a mistake" in admitting MohieaCummings and now needs to move on. A number of other prominent Kamehameha alumni and supporters, however, were quick to condemn the deal. "How do you explain this to the thousands of Hawaiians who get turned down?" 'īlio'uokalani Coalition President Vicky Holt Takamine, a graduate of the school, told the media. "How do you explain it to the Hawaiians who didn't get in (to the school) in the past, didn't get in this year and won't get in in the future?" For their part, Mohica-Cummings' attorneys told the press that they believed the settlement was in the boy's best interest. "The point of the lawsuit was to get Brayden in the Kamehameha Schools through 12th grade," attorney Eric Grant said. "He achieved everything that he wanted." ■

Kamehameha Schools Vice-Chairman Nainoa Thompson greets a supporter outside a court hearing on the sch00l's admissi0ns policy. Photo: Naomi Sodetani