Wednesday, July 1, 1998

‘Why don’t they
let us in?’

Arrest threats still mystify
those who tried to attend an
HHSAA board meeting

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The latest round of secrecy by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association further infuriates people who were threatened with arrest in February for trying to attend an HHSAA meeting at Kamehameha Schools.

"Oh no, don't tell me we have to go through this again," said Pearl City High School parent Annette Makue, referring to reports that the entire selection process for a new HHSAA director was conducted behind closed doors.

"These are people who are speaking on our behalf, but they're not speaking on our behalf, because they're not listening to us," Castle High School parent Cindy Dignam said.

HHSAA president Anthony Ramos, a secondary principal at Kamehameha Schools, repeated last week that all meetings of the executive board, composed of himself and four public school principals, shall remain closed.

The HHSAA's adamant stand on secrecy was emphatically demonstrated Feb. 2 when security guards threatened to have 18 parents and 12 female athletes from Oahu high schools arrested when they sought admission to an executive board meeting.

On the agenda that day was a review of the HHSAA's decision to sell the girls soccer tournament dates at Aloha Stadium to local concert promoter Tom Moffatt and move the tournament to Maui.

"We didn't go there in a violent way," Makue said. "But all of the sudden the head of security was at the gate saying he didn't want us 'protesters' there."

Then came a stern command from Kamehameha security for the car caravan to get off the property "Now!" Makue said.

Makue recalled that one guard yelled, "You are not invited," indicating the HHSAA board had no intention of admitting the group.

Soon after that, flashing blue lights from several Honolulu Police Department cars heightened the tension. The guards had moved on their threat to have the "trespassers" arrested, Makue said.

Makue and Dignam said they saw a security guard push a TV camera man, ordering him to get back into his car.

"Three of them walked him out," Makue said. "I was really scared for all of us. And when the police came, we were wondering if we had enough money for bail because it really looked like we were going to be arrested."

Dignam, who transported some of the girls, said she was worried about them at that point.

"They were petrified," she said.

No arrests were made.

Lindsay Wong, a soccer player who recently was graduated from Castle, said she remembers the day vividly.

She had enjoyed being a senator in student government and "learning how to make a difference." So she eagerly joined the caravan.

But what started out as an adventure in democratic process for Wong quickly turned into a traumatic experience.

"I was relieved when I got home but I still wondered ... what if we got arrested? What if?" Wong said.

Jill Nunokawa, president of the Gender Equity Sports Club, led the group to Kamehameha Schools that day. Dignam said that after everyone had dispersed, Ramos called Nunokawa on her cellular phone and invited her to make a three-minute presentation. Kaiser High parent Bert Wong (no relation to Lindsay) went with Nunokawa and was accorded the same time. Wong reportedly was cut off in midsentence.

With Gov. Cayetano's intervention, the decision to move the girls soccer tournament to Maui was reversed by the HHSAA.

But the incident at the gate remains on Lindsay Wong's mind.

"Why did they do that?" she asked again yesterday. "And why don't they let us into their meetings?"

Several state legislators have said they are questioning the HHSAA's secrecy policy in the wake of the board's clandestine selection of a new executive director.

Keith Amemiya, the son of former attorney general Ron Amemiya with no athletic administration background, was chosen for the job.

None of the names of the unsuccessful candidates were released by the HHSAA, though the Star-Bulletin discovered that Hana High athletic director Curtis Saiki was one of four finalists.

Objections to the HHSAA's policy of barring public and media from all meetings focus on the association's acceptance of grant money from the Legislature, its headquartering in a public school, its collection of membership dues money from public schools, and its very function. Most of the students its actions affect are public school athletes.