Fellows mentioned in this story: Josie Howard

From Civil Beat:

Before Cindy Byler moved to Hawaiʻi in 2017, she was warned by fellow military families that her kids might be bullied in schools because they were white. 

She didn’t think the issue would come up until her kids were in middle or high school. So she was taken aback last year when her daughter came home saying that her third grade classmates had called her ugly because she was white.

“I had to ask her again,” Byler said, adding that her daughter is one of the few white students in her class at Kāneʻohe Elementary School on Oʻahu. “I was like, ‘Really, is this happening?’” 

Hawaiʻi has long been known as a multicultural paradise, but teachers and parents say this reputation can mask racist jokes and bullying experienced by many students.

Continue reading at civilbeat.org.