Hawaiian father furious as his daughter is stopped from walking at graduation in her traditional lei
A California high school senior was prohibited from walking at her graduation ceremony by the school because she was wearing traditional Hawaiian lei, her family has claimed.
Sophia Noelani Iliana Benzon was set to graduate from Eastlake High School in Chula Vista on June 7, and for the ceremony, wore the lei around her neck.
But her family were stopped by school administrators in the gymnasium just minutes before she was supposed to walk along with the rest of her peers.
Her older brother, Julian Benzon, claims the school ordered Sophia to take off her lei or leave the ceremony.
But that didn't deter Sophia's father, Kurt Benzon, from speaking his mind to one of the female school employees blocking his daughter from having her once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Sophia Noelani Iliana Benzon pictured after her graduation, which her family said she was barred from for wearing her lei
The heated interaction was recorded and posted to TikTok by Sophia's other brother, Kainoa, where it got over 6.8 million views.
Benzon said the district already gave them permission in advance for Sophia to wear the lei.
One of Sophia's brothers explained that they gifted her the lei over the years, making them very significant. Families with Hawaiian roots often gift these garments to loved ones on special occasions such as birthdays, weddings and graduations.
'It takes us years to get these lei, we don't get these every graduation,' the brother is heard saying on the video to the school employee wearing a sun hat.
'I'm so sorry,' the woman starts to say before being cut off by Benzon.
'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,' Benzon said.
Kurt Benzon, Sophia's father, argued with a female faculty member, saying she wasn't sorry for prohibiting his daughter from walking at graduation
The faculty member Sophia's father was primarily arguing with in the school gymnasium minutes before Sophia was supposed to walk
It was pointed out that both of Sophia's brothers were allowed to wear their lei at their graduations.
The woman in the sun hat then notices she's being recorded and puts a hand up.
'You don't have my permission to videotape me,' she said.
Off camera, Benzon replied, 'It's a public school, it doesn't matter.'
At this point the camera panned over to a crying Sophia, still decked out in her pink and white floral lei.
In the video caption, Kainoa claims the school went so far as to restrict Sophia's access to her phone when they saw she was wearing the lei. On top of that, he wrote that they forced her to 'say she was not going to participate in the ceremony in order for her to contact her parents.'
As she waited for her parents, she was allegedly held in the gymnasium while the graduation was going on.
'She was discriminated and excluded from her peers as she stood crying in disbelief waiting for her family to arrive,' Kainoa wrote.
A cop was standing by throughout the argument in the gym, and after two minutes of arguing back and forth, the officer spoke up and said Sophia wouldn't be allowed to walk if she kept her lei on.
In a post after the graduation fiasco, the Benzon family flips off the school district for what transpired
Sophia is pictured in the parking lot after the confrontation in the gymnasium. She refused to take off her lei and be allowed to walk
'We have six minutes, what do you want to do?' the officer asks.
'Do the right thing and let her walk down there,' her father responds.
He then points at his daughter, agitated, and tells her to go walk with her lei.
'Let them tackle you, see what happens. Go down there with your lei, baby.'
According to her brother's Facebook post, Sophia 'held her head high and left.'
Viewers of the TikTok video were confused as to why the school restricted her from wearing her traditional garb, with some even suggesting the family take legal action.
'I don’t understand why this is a big deal to the school at all???' one person wrote.
Another person said they were also forced to take off their lei at graduation.
Many people commented on how quick Sophia's dad was to intervene and defend his daughter.
'This dad is so amazing and stood up for his daughter I wish I could high five hi,' a viewer commented.
The family ended up celebrating in the parking lot of the school and back at home.
'We gave her more flowers in the parking lot and embraced our strong Hawaiian princess in tears on her special day,' her brother Julian wrote.
