The senior Republican state senator has asked voters to reject a freshman Republican House member in the 2024 election after Rep. Elijah Pierick questioned why ‘Ewa Makai Middle School has LGBTQ flags on campus, including outside the principal’s office.
In an Instagram video last weekend, Pierick did not condemn the flags he saw during a campus tour on March 13, but he asked viewers to call or email Principal Kim Sanders with their thoughts and provided her phone number and email.
“And you might be thinking to yourself, ‘What does that flag actually represent?’” Pierick asked. “‘What is it conveying to our middle school students?’ This is what it means: lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual plus. Are these the kinds of concepts and lifestyles we want to be conveying to our middle school students every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all year round? Or should this be a conversation geared toward the home?”
In response, state Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point) called Pierick “rubbish” and a “hater” and asked him to apologize in a Facebook video that Fevella posted.
“He’s up for election in two years,” Fevella said. “Vote that hater out. … Elijah, I’m disappointed in you, big time.”
Fevella worked as a custodian at ‘Ewa Makai Middle School before resigning in 2018 after he was elected to the Senate, and supported Principal Sanders in his Facebook video.
“If anybody think they gonna attack my community because they have rainbow flag in their school in their office where you’re supposed to welcome everybody,” Fevella said. “This guy is rubbish.
“I love you Kim Sanders. You awesome,” he said. “She does a darn good job at the school. I’m proud of her.”
Sanders said Thursday in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Fostering a sense of inclusiveness leads to successful student outcomes. I’m so appreciative of the outpouring of support from our community members who have reached out with positive calls and emails.”
Pierick (R, Royal Kunia-
Waipahu-Honouliuli) told the Star-Advertiser in a brief telephone interview Thursday, “I appreciate Sen. Kurt Fevella sharing his perspective. The First Amendment gives him the ability to speak freely.”
Although ‘Ewa Makai Middle School is not in his House district, Pierick said students from his district likely attend it.
He declined to respond to further questions, saying his initial comments were adequate.
In his first legislative session this year, Pierick introduced an unsuccessful bill that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be
detected.
Instead, Gov. Josh Green on Wednesday signed a bill into law that legalizes abortions and protects Hawaii health care workers who perform them and guards them from prosecution if they perform abortions on women from states where abortions are banned.
The 25-member Senate added one more Republican in the November general election, for a total of two. The 51-member House added two more Republicans, for a total of six.
At the start of this session, Fevella immediately squabbled for minority leadership of the Senate with freshman Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-
Mokuleia) in a dispute that remains unresolved.
Awa on Thursday told the Star-Advertiser that he had not heard about the ‘Ewa Makai Middle School flag issue, so did not want to comment.
But Awa said he and Fevella have been working well together.
Without talking to either Fevella or Pierick, Awa did say, “Elijah if you’re going into somebody’s place,
you would talk to that
person — and that’s
Fevella.”
State Rep. Diamond Garcia (R, Ewa-Kapolei) joined Pierick in the House for the first time this year and called the issue over the ‘Ewa Makai flags “disheartening. It’s just not good for our party. It’s not good for our caucus.”
He watched both videos and heard comments from “both sides I didn’t like. I’m not in favor of either one of them.”
Garcia repeatedly quoted former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s “rule that ‘I shall not speak ill of any other Republican.’ This is a free country and free society. They’re both entitled to their opinion.”
Word of Pierick’s Instagram video and Fevella’s response spread rapidly across the public school teachers’ coconut wireless and to their union, the
Hawaii State Teachers
Association.
LGBTQ flags are common in Hawaii public schools and send a message to all students and staff of inclusion “and that all are welcome,” HSTA President
Osa Tui Jr. told the Star-Advertiser.
The flags run counter to book-banning efforts aimed at some mainland schools and Florida’s “Don’t say gay bill,” Tui said.
“We’re the aloha state,” he said. “That’s not the way we raise our kids.”
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