The question of whether to rename President William McKinley High School took center stage last week.
Another attempt to get the state Legislature to support a name change for President William McKinley High School failed to make it out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday.
This controversy has been going on for some time. Critics say the name is painful for Native Hawaiians because of McKinley’s role in the United States government taking control of Hawaiʻi.
McKinley Principal Ron Okamura does not favor changing the name, which he said would be “censoring history.”
“You wanna make sure that history is never forgotten — history is always explained. And I tell people all the time that we teach all sides of what goes on — the good, the bad, the ugly," he told The Conversation. "And we let our kids make their decisions after that. But you have to give them that perspective of every single side — that was the reason why we exist today. And that’s what history teaches us — you don’t make the same mistakes again.”
Okamura said the push to change the name dates back to when he took the helm 14 years ago.
McKinley is Hawaiʻi’s oldest public high school — founded in 1865 as the Fort Street English Day School. The name was changed to Honolulu High School in 1895, and to McKinley High in 1907.
The failed resolution sought to change the name of the school back to Honolulu High and remove the statue of McKinley from campus.
Speaking to HPR's The Conversation, McKinley graduates shared their support, and opposition, of the proposed name change.
McKinley alum Serena said, "Even though I'm not a Native Hawaiian myself, I feel very strongly about it because even though I didn't really learn about the annexation through my K-12 years, as a college student, I've learned and took classes to educate myself on this issue. So I feel very strongly that the name change is a reasonable consideration. It's just a high school that I went to. So if it did have a name change, I wouldn't really mind it. I would still be a graduate of that high school."
Susie Chun Oakland, who graduated from McKinley in 1979, said she does not support changing the name.
"I know most of my classmates and alums would not. There is a very deep pride for our school. And as we get older, we just appreciate the things that the school and the faculty and our peers had to offer," she said. "It's like going into someone's home and saying, you know, we're going to remove your family name, basically. That's how it felt to me."
House Resolution 24 would have supported renaming McKinley High School and removing McKinley’s statue. HR64 would "honor McKinley High’s 132 fallen soldiers by safeguarding and preserving the name."
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 24, 2022. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
