HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Administration is turning over at Kahuku High and Intermediate School after a Hawaii State Department of Education investigation into civil rights complaints.
Earlier this week, the DOE announced the retirement of principal Donna Lindsey, and parents are wondering if athletics director Gillian Yamagata will be next after hearing rumors she’s on leave.
The controversy stems from the first girls flag football game in March, where the players alleged they were forced to change out of their uniforms on the field.
Parents say that’s just part of it, and both girls and boys athletes have been affected.
“Soccer is one of them. The sport that everybody caters to is football, but the issue is the locker room is not accessible to all sports at Kahuku,” said Christian Parker, a Kahuku parent, girls basketball coach, and member of Kahuku Movement for Change.
The group is made up of parents, students, coaches and teachers.
“So the girls changing incident is just a small reflection of the school as a whole. There’s been multiple, multiple teachers, staff members that have confirmed that for gym classes and physical education classes, they don’t have a bathroom to change,” said Parker.
Before that controversy, things had already reached a boiling point after head football coach Sterling Carvalho was dismissed.
Kahuku Movement for Change rallied for a change in administration.
Hawaii News Now asked the DOE if Yamagata was on leave and under investigation. A spokesperson said the department couldn’t comment, so we sent the AD an email.
We got an out of office reply saying she will have limited access to her emails and will reply when she returns. It also leaves a contact for the assistant AD, but doesn’t say when she’ll come back.
The DOE previously confirmed the principal reported the changing incident to the DOE’s Civil Rights Compliance Branch.
Members of Kahuku Movement for Change have done interviews with that office.
“I’m the third interview that is going to be handling a lot of the sports side of everything, and I’m just happy that they are making an effort to clean things up or make things a little bit better,” said Parker.
Meanwhile, the group is still hoping the head football coach will be reinstated.