In this episode of HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i, student reporters explore cultural classrooms outdoors and online, interview criminal justice experts, investigate the rollout of a new state law, and profile a Hawaiian hula teacher and cultural practitioner.

In their story, students at Highlands Intermediate School on O‘ahu share their  interviews with two legal experts about how newly processed DNA evidence can change lives of people who may be wrongly incarcerated.

Students at Kua O Ka Lā Public Charter School, whose campus spans the remote fishing village of Miloli‘i on Hawai‘i island, explain a class project that allows them to share their beloved backyard with a virtual online audience, while McKinley High School students on O‘ahu shadow the Office of Hawaiian Education’s field trip to a historic property located in Manoa valley.

Kaua‘i High School graduate and HIKI NŌ student reporter Kate Nakamura shares her special report about period poverty and provides an update on the rollout of state law requiring period products in public school bathrooms. Nakamura was one of five students in the country awarded with the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs 2023 Gwen Ifill Legacy Fellowship, providing her with special mentorship from the PBS Hawai‘i station for the story.
The episode also includes a report from middle school students at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy on Hawai‘i Island who tell the story of their school’s kumu hula and how she perpetuates her cultural knowledge to pass it on to the next generation.

Show host Denise Cabrera, a senior at Wai‘anae High School, also shares an archive story about a young judo champion she produced while in the 7th grade at Wai‘anae Intermediate School.

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