BY HAND DELIVERY
February 9, 2018
Christina M. Kishimoto, Ed.D
State Superintendent
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
1390 Miller St., Room 309
Honolulu, HI 96813
Dann S. Carlson
Assistant Superintendent, Office of
School Facilities and Support Services
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
3633 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96816

Amy S. Kunz
Senior Assistant Superintendent and CFO,
Office of Fiscal Services
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
1390 Miller St., Room 319
Honolulu, HI 96813
Anne Marie Puglisi
Director, Civil Rights Compliance Office
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
1390 Miller St., Room 416
Honolulu, HI 96813

Re: Sex Discrimination Against Female Athletes in Hawaiʻi
Dear Dr. Kishimoto, Ms. Kunz, Mr. Carlson, and Ms. Puglisi:
It has come to our attention that the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
(“DOE”) is engaging in unlawful sex discrimination against female athletes in DOE
schools by providing such athletes grossly unequal opportunities and access to
athletic programs and facilities in comparison to their male counterparts. The
DOE’s sex discrimination violates, at a minimum, the Fourteenth Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, Sections 3 and 5 of Article 1 of the Hawaiʻi State
Constitution, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,1 and the U.S.
Department of Education’s interpreting regulations.2 The ACLU of Hawaiʻi
Foundation (“ACLU of Hawaiʻi”) writes to demand that you take immediate action
both to cease this discrimination and to rectify existing inequities.

1
2

20 U.S.C. § 1681.
See, e.g., 34 C.F.R. §§ 106.1, 106.2, and 106.41.

 Christine M. Kishimoto, Ed.D
Amy S. Kunz
Dann S. Carlson
Anne Marie Puglisi
February 9, 2018
Page 2 of 4
The ACLU of Hawaiʻi is particularly concerned by the revelations contained
in the recent February 7, 2018 HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT article entitled “Female
Athletes Get the Short End of the Stick at Some Hawaii High Schools.”3 Among
other things, the article reveals that—in spite of the more than 16,000 girls in
Hawaiʻi who participated in high school sports during the 2016-17 school year4—
many of the DOE’s high schools do not have separate athletic locker facilities for
girls, even when boys in those same schools do have such access. According to
DOE’s 2016 Statewide Athletic Plan, the following 14 schools do not have athletic
lockers for female students, while having such facilities for male students: Campbell
High School, Kahuku High School, Kailua High School, Mililani High School,
Moanalua High School, Pearl City High School, Radford High School, Waialua High
School, Konawaena High School, Wāiakea High School, Baldwin High School, Hāna
High School, Maui High School, and Kauaʻi High School.5 Thus, just two years ago,
the majority of Maui’s high schools did not have athletic facilities for girls
comparable to those for boys, and a third of Kauai’s and Oahu’s high schools were
also non-compliant with Title IX.
These revelations are especially troubling in light of the ACLU of Hawaii’s
prior litigation regarding this disparity between the female athlete’s experience and
the male athlete’s experience in DOE schools. In 2010, the ACLU of Hawaiʻi sued
the DOE and the County of Maui on behalf of three female students who were
enrolled in the DOE’s school system and wished to participate fully in the DOE’s
softball program.6 The federal lawsuit alleged, among other things, that female
See Suevon Lee, Female Athletes Get the Short End of the Stick at Some Hawaii
High Schools, HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT (Feb. 7, 2018), http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/
02/female-athletes-get-the-short-end-of-the-stick-at-some-hawaii-high-schools. The
article is enclosed with this letter.
4 See National Federation of State High School Associations, 2016-17 High School
Athletics Participation Survey Results, at 56, available at http://www.nfhs.org/
ParticipationStatistics/PDF/2016-17_Participation_Survey_Results.pdf.
5 See Sato & Associates, Inc., Statewide Athletic Plan, Master Planning and School
Assessment, Job No. Q61002-12, Master Plan for Athletic Facilities, DEP’T OF EDUC.,
STATE OF HAWAII (Feb. 2016) at PDF 4-5, available at https://www.documentcloud.
org/documents/4367267-HIDOE-Athletics-Master-Plan-and-Assessment.html.
6 Nobriga v. Dep’t of Educ., State of Hawaii, Civ. No. 1:10-cv-00159-DAE-LK,
Complaint (Mar. 18, 2010), ECF No. 1. The complaint is enclosed with this letter.
3

 Christine M. Kishimoto, Ed.D
Amy S. Kunz
Dann S. Carlson
Anne Marie Puglisi
February 9, 2018
Page 3 of 4
athletes in Baldwin High School “are being and have been denied equal and
adequate access to athletic facilities made available to male athletes,” and that such
denial was “because of their gender.”7 Soon after this lawsuit was filed, the ACLU of
Hawaiʻi, the DOE, and the County of Maui entered into a settlement agreement
requiring the DOE and the County of Maui to make improvements and expand
access to existing girls’ softball facilities, as well as build a new girls’ softball
practice field on par with the field already existing for boys.8 DOE also agreed to
pay the plaintiffs $75,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
We had hoped our prior lawsuit would bolster DOE’s commitment to gender
equity in its schools. But as the HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT article makes clear, the
immense gap between girls’ and boys’ athletic experiences persists today.
That gap must close now. DOE is required by law to provide the female
athletes of Hawaiʻi equal access to athletic facilities and programs. Facilities for
female athletes can no longer remain a “Wish List” item in the DOE’s master plan.9
While we recognize that the DOE has the difficult task of balancing its budget and
prioritizing among many different projects, compliance with Title IX is not optional.
Simply put, it is unfair and illegal that the female athletes of Hawaiʻi have been
denied full, equal access to the DOE’s athletic programs for this long. Indeed, that
this inequality persists today—nearly half a century after Hawaii’s own
Congresswoman Patsy Mink succeeded in shepherding Title IX into law—is
unconscionable.
In light of the above, we demand that, by March 12, 2018, the DOE respond
to this letter with a plan that concretely addresses the glaring inequality between
girls’ and boys’ athletic facilities in DOE schools—and does so expeditiously.
Specifically, the plan must ensure that all female athletes in DOE schools are given
access to facilities that are comparable to those given to male athletes by the first
Id. at ¶ 1.
While it was not the subject matter of the lawsuit, we note that in spite of the
lawsuit, Baldwin High School is among the high schools with athletic lockers for
boys but not for girls.
9 See Statewide Athletic Plan, Master Planning and School Assessment, Job No.
Q61002-12, Master Plan for Athletic Facilities, at PDF 13-14, (listing “Girls athletic
locker room and weight room” on “Wish List” for Kailua High School).
7
8

 Christine M. Kishimoto, Ed.D
Amy S. Kunz
Dann S. Carlson
Anne Marie Puglisi
February 9, 2018
Page 4 of 4
day of the 2018-19 school year. That plan must include expedited construction of
girls’ athletic locker facilities in schools that currently do not have such facilities.
Where such construction is currently unfeasible, the plan must include firm
construction dates. Alternatively, the plan might implement the alternating use of
existing facilities between the boys’ and girls’ athletic teams on an equal basis. In
other words, we demand that DOE develop a plan to be fully compliant with
Title IX by the first day of the 2018-19 school year.
We look forward to working with DOE towards an amicable resolution of this
matter. However, if we are unable to come to an agreement, the ACLU of Hawaiʻi is
prepared to take legal action—as we have done before—to ensure that Hawaii’s
female athletes are no longer denied the equal opportunities and access to which
they are entitled under the law.
We would appreciate your acknowledging receipt of this letter as soon as
possible. Thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter. If you
have any questions or comments in the interim, please contact me at 522-5908 or
mcaballero@acluhawaii.org.
Sincerely yours,

Mateo Caballero
Legal Director

Enclosures: Feb. 7, 2018, HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT article; Mar. 18, 2010 complaint
filed in Nobriga v. Dep’t of Educ., State of Hawaii, Civ. No. 1:10-cv-00159-DAE-LK
Cc (via email): Holly.T.Shikada@hawaii.gov (Deputy Attorney General, Education
Division, State Department of the Attorney General); doe_info@hawaiidoe.org