Hawaiian father furious as his daughter is stopped from walking at graduation in her traditional lei

A California high school student was not allowed to walk through school during her graduation ceremony because she was wearing a traditional Hawaiian lei, her family claims.

Sophia Noelani Iliana Benzon was scheduled to graduate from Eastlake High School in Chula Vista on June 7, and wore the lei around her neck during the ceremony.

But her family was stopped by school administrators in the gymnasium just minutes before she was to join the rest of her peers.

Her older brother, Julian Benzon, claims the school ordered Sophia to remove her lei or leave the ceremony.

But that didn’t stop Sophia’s father, Kurt Benzon, from speaking his mind to one of the female school employees who prevented his daughter from having her unique moment.

The heated interaction was recorded and posted to TikTok by Sophia’s other brother, Kainoa, where it racked up more than 6.8 million views.

Benzon said the district had given them permission in advance for Sophia to wear the lei.

One of Sophia’s brothers explained that they had gifted her the lei over the years, making it very important. 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 this lei, we don’t get this at every graduation,” the brother says on the video to the school employee wearing a sun hat.

“I’m so sorry,” the woman starts to say before being interrupted by Benzon.

‘You’re not sorry. “I don’t want to hear sorry, I want my daughter to walk on that field in her traditional clothes just like all my other family members who have graduated in the past,” Benzon said.

Kurt Benzon, Sophia’s father, argued with a female faculty member and said she was not sorry for forbidding his daughter from walking during the graduation ceremony

In particular, faculty member Sophia’s father had an argument in the school gymnasium, minutes before Sophia was scheduled to walk

It was pointed out that both of Sophia’s brothers were allowed to wear their lei at their graduation ceremonies.

The woman in the sun hat then notices that she is being recorded and raises her hand.

“You don’t have my permission to video record me,” she said.

Off camera, Benzon responded, “It’s a public school, it doesn’t matter.”

At this point the camera panned to a crying Sophia, still decked out in her pink and white floral lei.

In the video caption, Kainoa claims that the school went so far as to restrict Sophia’s access to her phone when they saw her wearing the lei. In addition, he wrote that they forced her “to say she would not participate in the ceremony so she could contact her parents.”

While waiting for her parents, she was reportedly held in the gym while graduation was in progress.

“She was discriminated against and excluded from her peers as she cried in disbelief waiting for her family to arrive,” Kainoa wrote.

During the entire argument in the gym, an officer was standing by, and after two minutes of arguing back and forth, the officer spoke up and said Sophia wasn’t allowed to walk if she kept her slate on.

In a post after the graduation fiasco, the Benzon family slams the school district for what happened

Sophia is pictured in the parking lot after the gym confrontation. She refused to take off her slate and walk

“We have six minutes, what do you want to do?” the officer asks.

“Do the right thing and let her walk there,” her father replies.

He then points irritably at his daughter and tells her to take her lei for a walk.

‘Let them tackle you, see what happens. Get over there with your lei, baby.”

According to her brother’s Facebook post, Sophia “held her head up and left.”

Viewers of the TikTok video were confused as to why the school banned her from wearing her traditional clothing, with some even suggesting the family would take legal action.

“I don’t understand why this is such a big deal for the school???” one person wrote.

Another person said they were also forced to remove their slates upon graduation.

Many people noted how quickly Sophia’s father intervened and defended his daughter.

“This dad is so amazing and stood up for his daughter. I wish I could give a high five,” said one viewer.

The family celebrated in the school parking lot and back home.

“We gave her more flowers in the parking lot and tearfully hugged our strong Hawaiian princess on her special day,” her brother Julian wrote.