Kamehameha issues apology for failures in sex-abuse case

Kamehameha Schools’ top executive Friday issued an unambiguous apology to the sex-abuse victims of the late Dr. Robert Browne, but several said the mea culpa alone was not sufficient to defuse a scandal that for decades the institution concealed, further traumatizing the victims.

“These are just words,” said Alika Bajo, 57, who said he was abused as a 13-year-old student in the 1970s. “We’ve been hearing words, words, words for years. We’d like to see action.”

“I have huge skepticism,” added Blake Conant, whose younger brother Christopher was believed to have been abused by Browne in the late 1960s and committed suicide years later. “I want very much to feel that aloha, that care, but it’s hard for me to believe.”

Bajo and Conant were reacting to an apology that Kamehameha Chief Executive Officer Jack Wong issued Friday, a major development in a controversy that has rocked the institution like no other in recent years.

“On behalf of Kameha­meha Schools, I’d like to take this time to apologize to these victims of Dr. Browne and their families who suffered alongside them,” Wong wrote in an email to the institution’s ohana and in a letter posted on the organization’s website. “Kamehameha Schools is deeply and truly sorry.”

Wong admitted that “not nearly enough” was done after the abuse was reported decades ago. “Truly, this represents the very darkest days for an institution charged with caring for and educating the most innocent among us, our keiki,” he wrote.

To the school’s students, ohana and the Hawaiian community, Wong offered “our sincere apologies for doubts these incidents may have raised about the leadership and conduct of the institution and legacy we belong to, revere and fight for. More is expected of us.”

Wong issued the apology in the wake of widespread public criticism about how the school handled the allegations when former President Michael Chun learned of them in 1991 and in the institution’s actions since. Browne was a psychiatric consultant who treated hundreds of Kamehameha students from the late 1950s into the early ’80s.

He committed suicide in 1991, hours after one of his former victims confronted him over the phone.

Thirty-four former Browne patients have sued the school, St. Francis Medical Center, where Browne was chief of psychiatry, and his estate, alleging gross negligence for not protecting them from the doctor’s abuse. The defendants denied the allegations.

In sworn 2016 depositions first disclosed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month, Chun admitted that the school didn’t conduct a broad investigation after learning of the allegations, did not report the accusations to law enforcement and did not reach out to Browne’s alleged victims to offer assistance.

Chun said the school’s response was guided by its lawyers. When asked why he took no action to help the alleged victims, Chun replied, “Doing nothing is doing something, right?”

Wong said in his apology message that neither the school nor the community was prepared for the “horrific revelation that our precious haumana were secretly abused and emotionally traumatized” from 1962 to 1984 by Browne.

He said the school is “working tirelessly to make amends” and vowed to “do what is pono for these victims.” He also promised to not allow abuse incidents to go “unnoticed, unreported or unaddressed” and to improve measures to keep students safe.

Bajo and Conant, who are among the 34 plaintiffs, said Wong’s apology was a good first step. But they and other plaintiffs said the unflattering publicity essentially forced the school’s hand and that a true test of Wong’s sincerity will be reflected in Kamehameha’s actions, including how it deals with the pending litigation.

They noted, for instance, that the school has indicated it intends to take depositions of all the plaintiffs — even though they have described their abuse twice already in medical claims and mediation proceedings — and of their spouses, parents, siblings, adult children, employers, co-workers, health care providers and others.

“Is this a sincere apology?” said one plaintiff who asked not to be identified because he has never told his children of his abuse. “How do you apologize and then depose my children? It’s insanity.”

A Kamehameha spokesman declined comment on the court case, citing a gag order that the plaintiffs say no longer is valid. In court documents the school’s attorney said the depositions are needed before the case goes to trial.

Several Kamehameha graduates told the Star- Advertiser that they were pleased by Wong’s apology.

“The true strength of Kamehameha is reflected in its students, alumni and the Hawaiian community, many of whom demanded that the school do what is pono and seek justice for the individuals,” said Jacob B. Kaomakaokala Aki, a 2013 graduate, in an email to the newspaper. “I am glad that the school is taking a step in the right direction.”

Aki started an online petition about a week ago demanding Kamehameha issue a public apology and help the victims heal. By Friday afternoon more than 800 people had signed it.