Before Cindy Byler moved to Hawaiʻi in 2017, she was warned by fellow military families that her kids might be bullied in schools because they were white.
She didn’t think the issue would come up until her kids were in middle or high school. So she was taken aback last year when her daughter came home saying that her third grade classmates had called her ugly because she was white.
“I had to ask her again,” Byler said, adding that her daughter is one of the few white students in her class at Kāneʻohe Elementary School on Oʻahu. “I was like, ‘Really, is this happening?’”
Hawaiʻi has long been known as a multicultural paradise, but teachers and parents say this reputation can mask racist jokes and bullying experienced by many students.
In a dramatic difference from the rest of the United States, white students surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 are far more likely to experience racism in Hawaiʻi schools, according to the survey, with roughly 47% of white students in the islands reporting unfair treatment compared to the national average of 17%.
More than half of Black students surveyed here said they’d faced racism in schools — the highest of any student group in the state, though other ethnicities were not far behind.
The online survey results are no longer available because they were taken down from the CDC's website earlier this month to comply with orders from the Trump administration.
The research — the agency's first attempt to measure racism in schools in its biennial health survey — found that Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students were the least likely student groups to report unfair treatment in Hawaiʻi schools. Some researchers, however, say poor data collection likely masks the full extent of discrimination and bullying these students face.
Teachers and parents say the racial diversity of Hawaiʻi schools can teach students empathy and understanding, but it also can serve as a breeding ground for resentment and harassment. While some incidents are limited to taunts and bullying among kids, other forms of racism carry into the classroom, where negative assumptions about students’ intelligence can impact their success.
These stereotypes are particularly pronounced for Micronesian students, many of whom say they feel unsafe in schools and believe their teachers have low expectations for them. Micronesian students also face higher arrest and discipline rates in Hawaiʻi schools and have fewer opportunities to take high-level classes matching their academic abilities — issues not faced by white students.
Byler said she was thankful her daughter’s class had a discussion after the incident last year on how to treat others with kindness, and she believes the bullying has mainly stopped.
But some teachers and legal advocates are concerned that not all schools are as proactive in addressing bullying, and little action is being taken on the CDC report.
Jodi Kunimitsu, a teacher at Maui High School, said educators need more training and resources to understand how racial biases and stereotypes affect students. While racist comments and derogatory name-calling are often laughed off as a joke in Hawaiʻi, these incidents can undermine the severity of racism kids face in schools.
“We’ve always had this kind of coverup,” she said.
'Something I Can't Get Away From'
After Jasmine Torrence moved to Hawaiʻi from North Carolina in 2020, she noticed people seemed more welcoming and friendly. There was a diversity of languages spoken in her community and schools offered a range of clubs to help students celebrate different cultures.
But the racism she previously experienced as a Black student in North Carolina is still prevalent in Hawaiʻi, she said. Her classmates have repeatedly called her the N-word, sometimes in front of teachers who said nothing in response.
“I feel like it’s something that I can’t get away from, no matter where I go,” Torrence said.
Racism — and its long-term impact on students — has been a key question for researchers in recent years amid growing concern about youth mental health. For the first time in 2023, the CDC added a question to its national health survey asking teens if they had ever experienced unfair treatment because of their race or ethnicity in schools.
The question is broad but was selected by researchers as an age-appropriate way to measure a range of experiences students might have with racism, including discriminatory policies or bias in schools, according to a CDC report accompanying the survey.
Overall it found that 39% of Hawai‘i high school students surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 said they had been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity, well above the national average of 32%.
Research by the agency has found that racism plays a significant role in students’ mental health. Students of color who experience racism face higher risks of suicide, poor mental health and a greater likelihood of substance use, according to the CDC report.
But data at the national level was limited, with only half of states reporting student responses to the question about racism. It further complicates matters that the data was taken offline earlier this month, a move that followed President Donald Trump’s executive orders instructing federal agencies to end initiatives related to gender and diversity, equity and inclusion.
The data had not been disseminated locally because the Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse only uploads results from the CDC survey when student responses have been available for two or more years. The Hawaiʻi Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment, including about whether it plans to do anything with the data.
At Waipahu High School, teacher Kevin Sledge said he’s not surprised that more than half of Black students experience racism in Hawaiʻi schools. Students have talked to him about being called the N-word or hearing comments about their hair. Some students said they didn’t feel well represented on campus until the school started its Black Cultural Club.
Racial bias against Black people is no less pronounced in Hawaiʻi than on the mainland, said Justin Levinson, a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa. Bias can manifest in a variety of ways, from teachers lowering their expectations for students to disciplining them more harshly in class.
A 2021 UH study found that Black students, along with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students, were disproportionately arrested in Hawaiʻi schools, often for offenses such as running away or not attending classes.
Learning Starts At Home
When it comes to addressing the bullying white students experience in schools, teachers say it's important to teach kids empathy and understanding from a young age. But they say it’s not easy when students sometimes pick up biases against their white peers at home.
White students are far more likely to experience racism in Hawaiʻi than in schools on the continent, according to the survey, with roughly 47% of white students in the islands reporting unfair treatment in schools because of their race compared to the national average of 17%.
Early research shows that Hawaiʻi residents have a mix of positive and negative implicit biases toward white people, Levinson said. But since white students are a minority in Hawaiʻi schools, making up around 20% of the student body, he said their experiences may be similar to those of racial minority students on the mainland.
Jonathan Okamura, a professor emeritus at UH Mānoa, said Hawaiʻi locals have strong biases against those they consider outsiders, including students from white and military families.
“Kill haole day” — an annual tradition when white kids were bullied and harassed on the last day of school — hasn’t happened in decades, Okamura said. Some also consider the event largely an urban legend, blown out of proportion by the media.
Even still, Okamura added, resentment and distrust of white students can manifest in harmful teasing and fights.
Kunimitsu, the teacher at Maui High School, said kids may also direct their trauma and frustration toward white classmates when they take lessons out of context. For example, when students learn about the effects of colonization on Hawaiʻi’s history and Native Hawaiian communities, they may see white people as the enemy and take out their anger on classmates.
“Kids simplify things,” she said, adding that it's important to teach students historical context and critical thinking skills to help them process their emotions.
Robert Livermore, a parent and teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary School, said kids also pick up the same resentment or anger they see from their families at home. That's why, he added, it’s important for schools to teach students about compassion and kindness from a young age.
“We should teach empathy for others,” Livermore said. “We don’t teach it enough.”
Data Understates The Experiences Of Pacific Islanders
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders reported some of the lowest rates of racism in the state, yet Okamura said the consequences they face from negative stereotypes and hurtful comments can be long-lasting and severe.
White students may face taunts or fights at the hands of their classmates, he said, but negative stereotypes or biases against white kids don’t necessarily spill over to teachers' treatment of students. Nearly a quarter of educators in Hawaiʻi schools were white in the 2022-23 academic year, making up the largest group of teachers in the state.
On the other hand, he said biases and prejudice against Pacific Islanders can be ingrained in both kids and teachers, creating school environments that prevent these students from achieving their full academic potential.
In 2023, 34% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students said they experienced unfair treatment because of their race in Hawaiʻi schools – slightly below the national average of 38% for this racial group. But the CDC survey didn't separate the responses of Native Hawaiians from Pacific Islanders, including Micronesian students.
Josie Howard, chief executive officer of the nonprofit We Are Oceania, said she’s also worried that the survey doesn’t capture the experiences of Micronesian students who skip class because of bullying or discrimination. In addition, Howard said kids are reluctant to identify as Micronesian because teachers and staff will automatically assume they are troublemakers or poor students.
“They just keep their heads down,” Howard said, adding that those students rarely speak up against the bias or racism they face in schools. “They don’t question it.”
At Moanalua High School, Marshallese senior Mamoru Kabua said he was put in English learner classes from second grade to his junior year because teachers assumed he couldn’t speak English fluently. When his uncle spoke a few words of Marshallese in elementary school, he added, teachers automatically assumed the rest of the family didn’t know English, even though Kabua speaks it fluently.
“Whenever I have to talk to them, they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I never thought you would have good English,’” Kabua said of his teachers.
Brandy Chang, who runs the Micronesian Club at Moanalua, said it’s not unusual for teachers to set lower expectations for Pacific Islander students. They aren’t always able to put school first if they need to care for younger siblings or help their parents navigate job changes and housing transitions, she added, but they can do just as well as their peers when they receive the right support.
“I think there’s still this belief that our Pacific Islander students are always going to be underperforming," Chang said, "and that’s just ridiculous.”
The Best Path Forward
Racism in Hawaiʻi has long been a challenge for schools, but not all teachers and administrators are taking incidents seriously, said Wookie Kim, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi.
It’s sometimes difficult for teachers to differentiate between friendly banter between students and harmful name-calling that borders on racism, Kim added. Race is the most common basis for bullying when the ACLU receives complaints from parents in Hawaiʻi schools.
In its annual notice of non-discrimination, the Hawaiʻi education department says harassing students for their race can lead to suspension in the most extreme cases. Counseling and educational resources are available for students who have experienced racism, the department said, as well as those who perpetrated the acts.
Kunimitsu said it’s often up to educators to set the tone for what’s acceptable in their classrooms. Teachers might reprimand students for name-calling or racial slurs, but they don’t always understand how these comments affect students.
Teachers also aren’t required to complete training around implicit bias or microaggressions, Kunimitsu added, even though that can influence how they treat students and run their classrooms.
Under the new presidential administration, it may be harder to advocate for the resources and data schools need. Trump recently disbanded the White House Initiative on Asian American, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, which was advocating for more data disaggregation to understand the unique experiences of students and communities.
An executive order passed last week also ends diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in federal programs and agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education.
But some teachers are hopeful small changes can stem from students.
At Moanalua High School, Chang said, students are leading the charge to change others’ perceptions of Pacific Islanders.
Reana Deleon Guerrero, a senior at Moanalua High School, said the Micronesian Club has given students more visibility and confidence since they’ve started participating in the school’s annual May Day performance. Although some people believe that all Micronesians are the same, she added, the performance highlights a diversity of cultures and dances students are proud to call their own.
Torrence, the Waipahu High School junior, said she’s also hopeful that events like the school’s recent Black cultural fair can help bring people together and create a more welcoming culture on campus. More students are becoming involved in the fair every year, and she’s feeling more confident and accepted on campus.
“We are connected with everyone,” Torrence said. “We are all human.”
Byler, whose daughter was picked on for being white, said her heart sank the first time her daughter told her about it. But she’s since encouraged her to learn from the experience: It might be uncommon for white kids in the U.S. to be treated unfairly because of their race, she said, but that’s not the case for everyone.
“I stressed to her, look, this is something we normally aren't subjected to,” Byler said. “You’re going to be so mature for coming out on the other side of this and have perspective for those who do face that type of criticism all their life.”
Full article can be found at: https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/02/racism-is-common-in-hawaiʻi-schools-and-often-goes-unaddressed/