Hawaii school named after former US president McKinley faces controversy regarding name

A high school in Hawaii named after former U.S. President William McKinley has had controversy regarding the school name. Some alumni want the name to stay while others want it changed.

"It's how you understand your place in Hawaii and your belonging," said Ty P. Kāwika Tengan, a professor in the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "It tells all these stories about race, class and other things that are kind of implied by the school and the communities that you imagine go there."

But for some, answering that question gets complicated when the school bears the name of President William McKinley, who many Native Hawaiians disdain for his role in the annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom to the United States. And now a proposal to change the name of Honolulu's McKinley High School has sharply divided graduates, often along generational lines.