Hawaii
Settlement Aims To Ensure Gender Equality For Student Athletes In Hawaii
Plaintiffs in a landmark lawsuit over the unequal treatment of female athletes at Hawaii’s largest public school welcomed the finalization of a settlement Friday and expressed hope it would lead to fairer accommodations statewide.
In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of female athletes at Campbell High School against the Hawaii Department of Education and the Oahu Interscholastic Association. Female athletes at the school complained of a lack of locker rooms and travel opportunities for their sports teams.
DOE and OIA entered into a preliminary settlement with the plaintiffs in October. The U.S. District Court upheld that agreement on Friday after no objections were raised during a final hearing on Friday.
The settlement did not seek monetary damages but focused on the need to ensure equal treatment for female student athletes. That includes hiring an independent evaluator to assess Campbell High’s athletic facilities as part of a seven-year compliance plan.
The independent evaluator already has started speaking with female athletes at the high school and completed his first on-site visit of the school in December. The next one will be in the spring. DOE and OIA will be required to upload the reports on their website, according to lawyers in the case.
Ashley Badis, one of the plaintiffs who is now a student at the University of Hawaii Manoa, said she’s most excited about the settlement’s requirement that Campbell High teachers, coaches and students receive training on gender equity in sports.
“I personally didn’t even know what Title IX was until this whole process started,” said Badis, a former member of Campbell’s water polo and swim team. “I just knew something was wrong.”
Title IX is a federal law mandating that male and female athletes receive equal opportunities in school sports, including access to training and medical resources, coaches and locker rooms.
Campbell’s stand-alone locker room for female athletes is still in the construction process. Approximately 15 Hawaii schools only have one locker room that is shared between boys’ and girls’ teams depending on the athletic season, according to DOE.
“It’s very easy to say something is the case on paper,” ACLU of Hawaii legal director Jongwook “Wookie” Kim said. “But then when you actually go onto campus and talk to students or talk to coaches, the situation might be completely different.”
Several provisions in the settlement specifically apply to Campbell, but Kim said he’s hopeful the lawsuit will also address larger Title IX concerns in Hawaii.
Notably, all OIA schools must complete an annual Title IX assessment in order to maintain their membership in the association. More than 20 public schools participate in the OIA.
An independent evaluator will then review schools’ assessments and develop recommendations for the OIA.
Lyle Hosoda, who represented OIA in the case, said the association is dedicated to following the lawsuit’s requirements and working with school athletic directors and principals on Title IX compliance moving forward.
“This is a continuing effort,” Hosoda said during Friday’s hearing.
Elizabeth Kristen, the plaintiffs’ counsel in the case, said she’s hopeful about the settlement’s impact on Hawaii schools, adding that Campbell has made some progress toward improving its athletic program.
The school surveyed students at Campbell and its two feeder schools, Ewa Makai and Ilima Intermediate, to determine girls’ interest in different sports. The results of the survey can help Campbell better plan its athletic programs for girls moving forward, said Kristen, who also serves as director of Legal Aid at Work’s gender equity and LGBTQ+ rights program.
“But each school shouldn’t take six years of litigation,” Kristen said. “So it’s really time for the Department of Education to take proactive measures and fix this across the state.”
Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.
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The National Park Service is warning parents to keep their children close after a toddler ran toward the edge of a 400-foot-tall cliff at Hawaii National Park on Christmas.
The young boy was at the park with his family to view the eruption of the Kilauea volcano. They were in a closed area at Kilauea Overlook when he wandered away from his family before the “near miss.” His mother, screaming, managed to grab him just about a foot away from a fatal fall.
“Park rangers remind visitors to stay on trail, stay out of closed areas and to keep their children close, especially when watching Kīlauea from viewpoints along Crater Rim Trail. Those who ignore the warnings, walk past closure signs, lose track of loved ones, and sneak into closed areas to get a closer look do so at great risk,” the agency warned.
Rangers noted that dangers escalate during volcanic eruptions, as people flock to view the spectacle of lava flowing out of the Earth’s crust. The Park Service urged drivers to slow, and watch out for pedestrians, Hawaiian geese, and switch to low beams when other cars and pedestrians are present.
The eruption, which started on December 23, is now in its second pause, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. But, it could still restart at any time.
Furthermore, emissions of toxic gas remain high, including particulate matter called tephra. Billions of minuscule pieces of tephra, which include all fragments of rock ejected into the air by an erupting volcano, can be carried on winds for thousands of miles and can cause respiratory issues. Volcanoes also produce dangerous gases, like carbon dioxide and hydrogen chloride.
Tephra has blanketed the closed portion of Crater Rim Drive downwind of the lava.
“The hazards that coincide with an eruption are dangerous, and we have safety measures in place including closed areas, barriers, closure signs, and traffic management,” Park Superintendent Rhonda Loh said in a statement.
“Your safety is our utmost concern, but we rely on everyone to recreate responsibility. National parks showcase nature’s splendor but they are not playgrounds,” she said.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit by Maui County Council candidate Kelly King to overturn the general election results.
King lost her race last month to incumbent Tom Cook by 97 votes.
She argued the county rejected too many ballots because of missing or invalid signatures, and that voters weren’t offered enough help to fix the problems.
In Maui County, there were nearly 1,100 deficient ballots compared to the national average. King says Maui County’s rejection rate was nearly double the state average in 2022.
But the high court ruled Tuesday that the County Clerk’s Office followed state law and all administrative rules to cure the deficient ballots.
View the full decision here.
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Authorities are investigating how a passenger without a ticket got onto a Delta Airlines flight bound for Honolulu Christmas Eve.
According to Delta Airlines, the traveler boarded flight 487 from Seattle to Honolulu, on an Airbus A321neo aircraft.
The traveler has not been identified, but the airlines confirmed the person was discovered during the taxi out at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday.
The flight returned to the gate, where the person was removed and arrested. The Transportation Security Administration conducted additional security checks, including customer rescreening.
The flight was delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes and continued on to Honolulu, the airline said.
Delta Airlines said in a statement: “As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”
Delta said early indications are the unticketed passenger boarded the flight at the gate without presenting a boarding pass.
TSA says the passenger made it through the standard screening, and did not possess any prohibited items.
The investigation is ongoing.
This happened on the same day that a body was discovered in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that arrived in Kahului from Chicago.
That incident also remains under investigation.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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