Hawaii senator Mazie Hirono is facing tough questions after a Honolulu flight school alum named Deborah Reid said that Hirono personally covered up sexist harassment occurring at a flight school that Hirono created as lieutenant governor.
Reid said that all female members of the class dropped out after they were “emotionally and verbally abused” by a male flight instructor, who went on to a successful career in the industry.
Here is Deborah Reid’s statement to Big League Politics:
“I was an aviation student in a program that Senator Mazie Hirono created in 1998 (then Lt. Governor) with Honolulu Community College (University of Hawaii) and University of North Dakota Flight Training program. There were 20 students and 2 of us were females. As time went on, more women signed up, but none were getting passed by the chief flight instructor. I contacted these women after they dropped out from the program and they told me that they were being emotionally and verbally abused by the chief flight instructor.
I can’t stand Senator Hirono complaining about Judge Kavanaugh when she didn’t step up and make things right for the women in the aviation program she created in 1998. All the women dropped out because they were being harassed by the male chief flight instructor who obviously didn’t think women should fly and be pilots and he bullied the females until they were in tears and quit the program. The male students were concerned about themselves and wanted the program to continue so they could get their pilots license with no regards to how women were being treated including myself. Where was Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in all this?
https://www.civilbeat.org/2011/07/details-of-house-ethics-scandal-unknown-hirono-says/