DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Mun Chee Chun, 93, and his wife, Marjorie, displayed the McKinley High School code of honor yesterday in their Liliha home. Chun wrote the code in 1927, including the "love for God" phrase now causing controversy.

Creator of McKinley code
‘disgusted’ by controversy

He wants the school to keep
the code intact or get rid of it

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By Mary Vorsino
mvorsino@starbulletin.com

Keep the McKinley High School code of honor as it is -- "Love for God" and all -- or burn it, says the man who wrote it, 93-year-old Mun Chee Chun of Liliha.

In response to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Department of Education questioning the constitutionality of the phrase, Chun says that if the code is touched, he does not want the school to keep it.

But Principal Milton Shishido does not see it coming to that. "We're pretty confident that we will prevail. ... Most faculty members are in favor of maintaining what we have."

And if the courts do rule the phrase unconstitutional, Shishido said the school will "take a look at the wording of the phrase," but "we're not going to come up with a whole new code."

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of McKinley High School sophomore James Ornellas.

Fifteen-year-old Ornellas is an agnostic, one who believes that it is impossible to prove God exists.

He approached the ACLU after an April public hearing about the code, which reads in part, "As a student of McKinley, I stand for ... Love for God and all Mankind."

Ornellas said: "(According to the code) in order to be honorable, you have to love God.

"We are a nation of many people and many religions. I don't think the state and federal government should enforce a particular religion."

Chun feels differently but was unable to speak directly about the subject.

Through his wife, Marjorie Chun, Mun Chee Chun said the controversy has left him "disgusted."

Marjorie Chun said: "I tell you, he's so angry. ... I don't think he wants to talk about it too much. For a while he was crying every day.

"He thinks that it's so awful that he told (the school historian) to burn that code of honor."

Mun Chee Chun, a former postal worker retired for 30 years, wrote the honor code in 1927 for a homeroom contest when he was a senior at McKinley.

The code disappeared for decades but was rediscovered in the 1990s, when someone found a plaque with the honor code on it in the school's basement.

ACLU legal director Brent White said since then the code has been printed on posters and displayed "all over the place."

"The school has (recently) chosen to promote this particular code," White said. "It's not a tradition. It's just old."

Ornellas said that during his freshman year, every one of his classes had a poster with the code on it and that the code is displayed in the halls and on the plaque, which is placed at the main entrance of the school.

For Ornellas, the lawsuit is more a matter of principle than practice. But it was not easy for him to come forward with his feelings about the code, he said.

"My parents are cool with it, and my other relatives (who go to church) are OK with it, too."

But many people are not.

Some of his fellow students have thrown insults his way.

"I was hoping they'd be more passive, care less or just let it go," Ornellas said.

One McKinley student told Ornellas in an Internet chat room that he should "go live with the fish"; another called him the "antichrist," though half-jokingly, Ornellas said.

Even the Chuns hold animosity toward the teenager.

Ornellas' response? "Whateva."

The school has stood by the wording of the code since it was first questioned by a McKinley High School teacher last year. In January, after being asked for an opinion by the school, the attorney general deemed the code constitutional, and, like the national motto "In God We Trust," not a prayer.