Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The U.S. Department of Defense has “restored” students from American Samoa to the National Guard Youth Challenge Academy (NGYCA) in Hawai’i.

This was confirmed in a statement released by Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata yesterday.

 “I received the call  [yesterday] morning, and I’m excited to let our youth and their parents know of this decision,” said Congresswoman Amata.

 “The DOD has reversed the earlier decision, and U.S. Nationals are allowed and will be returned to the Academy.”

Hawaii state DOD Director of Public Affairs Jeff Hickman told Hawaii News Now yesterday, “Our request to have the exemption to allow American American Samoa youth who are U.S. Nationals will now be accepted into the Hawaii Youth Challenge program. So that’s it’s big news, great news. We’ll get to keep the 13 American Samoa youth that are still here. And we were working on getting the 11 that we just shipped out yesterday, back into the program.”

On Monday, 11 of the 25 students returned to American Samoa after they were deemed ineligible for the program that targets to intervene in and reclaim the lives of 16 - 18 year-old high school dropouts, producing program graduates with the values of life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed as productive citizens.

The students were supposed to undergo five months of the program but they were ousted five weeks into it.

Earlier this week, Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga proposed to meet with Hawaii officials this week to discuss the concerns in the recruiting process and work on solutions for the students that are interested in the Hawaii National Guard Youth Challenge Academy. (See story for details in Samoa News issue dated 02/15/23)

Prior to the reversal, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told parents in part, “I understand the frustration and anger caused by this incident and apologize for everyone’s hardship. The Youth Challenge Academy knows that trust will need to be earned and hope that someday in the near future, the government policy will be updated to allow US Nationals from American Samoa to join and graduate from Hawaii’s Youth Challenge Academy.”

He told parents that the program was working closely with the National Guard Bureau and the Dept. of Defense to amend the policy to allow US Nationals to participate in the program.

Congresswoman Uifaatali acknowledged quick actions by DOD.

 “They took to heart our concerns and did the right thing.  This is very important to these young people and families. We must continue to assure that U.S. Nationals are always treated equally and fairly under programs like these, and this new precedent will help us do that.

 “Thank you again to the decision-makers, and best wishes to our students as they get back to their studies and this excellent program, which I’m always delighted to support.

 “Finally, I thank Governor Lemanu P. S. Mauga for his efforts on this issue, and Hawai’i Governor Josh Green for his statement to the students and parents.”