If admitted, would the boy be the only non-Hawaiian at Kamehameha Schools?
No. In a controversial decision in 2002, the schools’ trustees admitted a non-Hawaiian to its Maui campus. After an outcry from alumni and the Hawaiian community, the trustees reaffirmed their policy to give preference to children of Hawaiian ancestry. But in 2003, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered Kamehameha Schools to admit a non-Hawaiian, 12-year-old boy pending a decision in the child’s civil rights challenge to the school’s Hawaiians-only admission policy. Brayden Mohica-Cummings’ mother, who is non-Hawaiian but had been adopted and raised by a Hawaiian man, stated on his application that Brayden was Hawaiian. He was initially accepted, but the school rescinded his acceptance after learning he had no Hawaiian blood. The boy later dropped the lawsuit in exchange for being allowed to remain at the school.
