HONOLULU -- A Big Island attorney filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday on behalf of a Kauai seventh-grader for admission to Kamehameha Schools.

Video

VIDEO REPORT

The student was at first accepted into the school but then rejected after he was unable to prove Hawaiian ancestry.

"It has to do with a civil-rights act that prevents race discrimination. Contracting in America, and a contract for education, is a contract pursuant to that civil-rights act, and this is clearly discrimination, and this is clearly a contract," attorney John Goemans said.

Kamehameha Schools said it will defend its admissions policy.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, acting Chief Executive Officer Colleen Wong said the student's invitation to attend was rescinded after the school discovered misleading and inaccurate documentation to verify Hawaiian ancestry. The statement also says the school believes its admission policy is consistent with applicable law.

For 116 years Kamehameha Schools has educated children of Hawaiian ancestry. Recently it's admissions policies are coming under fire as discriminatory.

This is the second court challenge in the past few months.

There will be a hearing in federal court Tuesday.

Lawyers for the student are seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow the boy to attend Kamehameha Schools while the lawsuit is pending.

Attorney John Goemans said this latest lawsuit has grounds in an 1866 civil rights act that prohibits race discrimination in contracts.

"A contract for education is a contract pursuant to that civil-rights act and this is clearly race discrimination and it's clearly a contract," Goemans said.

Goemans said the seventh-grade student was ready to attend Kamehameha this Thursday but at the last minute the school rejected him when he couldn't prove Hawaiian ancestry.

"The child had been raised by his mother's father who is 75 percent Hawaiian as a Hawaiian so on, but did not have any proof that his grandparents were Hawaiian," Goemans said.

Although the grandparents that raised him are Hawaiian, Goemans said the student is not Hawaiian.

Kamehameha Schools declined an on-camera interview, but released a statement saying in part: "The invitation to attend was rescinded after Kamehameha Schools discovered misleading and inaccurate documentation to verify Hawaiian ancestry."