Offending photo
to bring apology

Castle High's yearbook
shows a student dressed
in Klan robes

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

School officials appear to be responding more quickly to the latest charge of racial harassment against African Americans, this time at Castle High, a lawyer says.

The charge involves a photo in Castle High's 1998 yearbook of a student on Halloween dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe. The photo is in a collage of other students in Halloween costumes.

But complaints could have been avoided if the state Department of Education had provided racial sensitivity training to all principals, school staff, and teachers, including yearbook advisers -- and particularly with reference to African Americans, said attorney Daphne Barbee-Wooten.

"It's a shame and disgrace the department didn't learn from the Kalaheo incident," she said.

Two Kalaheo parents last year sued the department, saying school officials failed to adequately respond to a yearbook caption they regarded as racially offensive. The caption accompanied a photo of African-American students. The suit is scheduled for trial Oct. 27.

"It just keeps going on and on," Barbee-Wooten said.

"How many mistakes does it take before they learn?"

Steven Boyce, father of an African-American student at Castle, protested the publication of the photo in a June 1 letter, calling it a "senseless display of bigotry."

Castle Principal Barbara Teruya took immediate responsibility and action, said Deputy Superintendent Stan Seki.

"The department does not condone discrimination of any type," he said. "We're hopeful this will be resolved quickly."

The school will be sending out apology letters to students and parents before school lets out next Tuesday and will provide stickers to cover the offending photo.

The school also will be working with Kailua Intermediate School Principal Lorraine Henderson to provide multiethnic sensitivity training for staff -- a move Kalaheo parents had requested.

Boyce questioned whether such training will put an end to racist views.

"You can educate as much as you want to, but racism and people's insensitivity is an individual thing," he said.

"It's beyond Castle. It permeates in our society."

The photo of the Ku Klux Klan uniform is "extremely insulting" to African-Americans because the group, which still exists, was founded to harass, kill and lynch blacks, Barbee-Wooten said.

The Afro American Lawyers Association of Hawaii yesterday filed a complaint with the department and is waiting to see what steps are taken to rectify the situation.

One of the students whose parents filed suit over the Kalaheo yearbook incident transferred to Castle this year, Barbee-Wooten said.

Myles Sanders Jr., a military dependent, has since moved to Missouri and hasn't seen the yearbook photo, she said.