The origins of the Kamehameha Schools are found in the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, written in 1883.  Seeking to help perpetuate the rapidly diminishing Hawaiian people and culture through education, she writes in her will that there are to be two institutions established, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as the Kamehameha Schools, and that these would give preference to children of pure or part Hawaiian ancestry.

    Following Pauahi’s death in 1884,

 her husband, Charles Reed Bishop,

 began carrying out her will and in

 1887, the Kamehameha School for

 boys was opened,  originally located

in Kalihi Valley.  By 1894, the

Kamehameha School for girls was opened, and by 1955 the schools were

relocated to it’s present location on Kapalama Heights, the former location becoming the Bishop Museum.  With the change of location, the Schools were also expanded to educate elementary and middle school students as well.

    By 1966 The boys and girls schools were integrated into a single institution, allowing the mission of educating Hawaiians to be further concentrated on.  Not helping only those enrolled at Kamehameha Schools, various outreach programs were established in order to educate more hawaiian children, such as the explorations program in 1968.  Throughout the next two decades, the school steadily increased the amount of students admitted, as well as the number of outreach programs established.

    The schools, as well as Pauahi’s assets, have been managed by the Bishop Estate trustees ever since the founding of the schools, and this system had worked fairly well in terms of management.  However, in 1997, allegations were made of the trustees that were currently installed, that they were mismanaging the assets of Pauahi.  Throughout the next two years, investigations were made, and ended in the forceful removal of three of the five trustees, the rest of which willingly resigned following the case.

    In 2003, the attorney of an an applicant to Kamehmeha schools filed a suit against the institution, for revoking his acceptance into Kamehameha on discovering that he was not of Hawaiian ancestry.  Going against it’s policy, the schools made a settlement out of courts, agreeing to admit the student in exchange for dropping the case.  This was the first time that Kamehameha’s admissions policy was questioned under court.

    The 2003 lawsuit was only the beginning of attacks on the Schools’ admissions policy, as yet another suit was filed by an anonymous individual Jon Doe, who sought entrance to Kamehameha Schools, but was denied by the admissions policy.  The case dragged on from 2003 until 2007, where there was a settlement made outside of court.

    This is not the end of the attacks on Kamehameha schools, and there are currently and will be more individuals who will seek to forcefully change the way the School is run.