Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@kainoa.b / Instagram/@kainoa_2005
Topics: Education, Social Media, Hawaii, TikTok, Viral
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Education, Social Media, Hawaii, TikTok, Viral
A furious father hit out at his daughter's school after she wasn't allowed to wear a traditional Hawaiian lei to her graduation.
Sophia Noelani Iliana Benzon was set to graduate Eastlake High School in Chula Vista earlier this month and sported a beautiful lei around her neck.
But shortly before she was supposed to take part in the ceremony, Sophia and her family - some of which were also wearing leis - were stopped by school staff members.
A heated encounter between Sophia's family and a teacher was videoed and uploaded to TikTok, where the member of school staff apologized for the situation but insisted that the student couldn't wear the lei because it went against the school's policy.
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Sophia's father raged: "You're not sorry. I don't want to hear sorry, I want my daughter to be out on that field walking with her traditional garb like every one of my other family members in the past who have graduated."
Apparently they needed to get school district's permission for Sophia to wear the lei, but the Benzon family insisted that they did.
Sophia's brother Kainoa has since uploaded the clip to TikTok and it's been viewed almost seven million times.
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He captioned the now-viral video: "My sister was denied from walking at her graduation minutes before her ceremony because school staff would not let her wear traditional Hawaiian lei’s.
"After getting further approval from the district board to wear them, faculty members further then restricted access to having her phone and forced Sophia, A MINOR, to verbally say she was not going to participate in the ceremony in order for her to contact her parents after the fact."
Kainoa's lengthy caption went on: "They held her in another building as the graduation ceremony was taking place and there she was discriminated and excluded from her peers as she stood crying in disbelief waiting for her family to arrive.
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"Eastlake High School took this evening which was supposed to be the end of a chapter to celebrate and turned it into a tragedy for her and her family.
"Hawaiian culture should not be excluded or dictated by school policies whatsoever. So much for inclusivity and diversity if you’re going to discriminate tradition from all Pacific Islanders."
The video has also been shared on Reddit where people have shared their thoughts.
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"I'm more dumbfounded this happened, in San Diego too," someone said. "It's not like she had 10 leis or something like some graduates end up with after walking. I can see those being a bit weird for a stage walk, but this is just ridiculous."
Another added: "My sister’s high school doesn’t allow leis of any kind. It makes no sense, it doesn’t disrupt anything with the ceremony. I get it some students are overkill with them but just put a limit to it, don’t outright ban them."
Elsewhere people online have applauded Sophia's father for standing up for his daughter and their Hawaiian culture.
Sophia ultimately chose not to walk in the ceremony and celebrated in the parking lot and her home instead.
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UNILAD has contacted Eastlake High School for comment.