Parents’ letters
oppose admission
data disclosure

Kamehameha parents
do as the estate asked and
mail the judge

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

Hundreds of letters and forms from Kamehameha Schools parents and students objecting to the state's request for students' admission records have been delivered to Circuit Judge Kevin Chang.

Attorneys for the Bishop Estate yesterday handed over five large boxes containing objections to Attorney General Margery Bronster's subpoena for records for all the schools' applicants between Jan. 1, 1996, and Jan. 1, 1998.

Chang earlier upheld the subpoena and gave the Bishop Estate until May 1 to deliver the admission records to the state, which is investigating allegations of financial mismanagement and breaches of fiduciary duties by trustees of the Bishop Estate.

The subpoena is a follow-up to a report by the estate's court-appointed fact finder Patrick Yim, who said trustees influenced the admissions process at the elementary schools.

The estate, which operates Kamehameha Schools, said it is considering appealing Chang's ruling to the state Supreme Court, saying the subpoena violates the privacy rights of applicants.

Darolyn Lendio, attorney for the estate, said Bronster is asking the estate to turn over some 160,000 pages of records and information about 10,000 applicants without making a specific allegation of wrongdoing by trustees.

She noted that in many of the letters, parents said they don't want the schools to turn over personal and financial information for Bronster's review.

The letters came in response to the estate's radio and newspaper ads asking parents and students to write to its lead attorney William McCorriston if they object to the release of the application records.

Federal law requires the estate to notify parents in cases where students' records are released.

Hugh Jones, deputy attorney general, said the admission records are protected under a court order that guarantees applicants' and parents' confidentiality.

Jones said the state has agreed to protect the privacy of applicants and their families. "The attorney general sincerely appreciates (parents and students) concerns," he said. "But this is not about the parents and children. This is about the trustees."

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Bishop Estate Archive