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Impact of Sikh Coalition’s report: US Congress tells Dept. of Education & Justice to expand outreach to Sikh Americans in schools

July 7, 2014 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Chandigarh/ Punjab (July 07, 2014): Gagandeep Kaur, a fourth grade student of John Sinnott Elementary School of Milpitas in California aspires to be an international football player. A forward in Under-10, the local Galaxy club football team, Kaur has been winning matches for her teammates by scoring maximum goals in the inter-club matches. But instead of becoming their favourite, Kaur has been drawing unusual attention from her teammates. Even in school, she and her 7-year-old brother, Agamjot Singh, are being bullied by other students for their uncut hair and Punjabi attire. Kids mock them and often touch and twist Agamjot’s “joora”, calling it names.

Unable to bear the taunts, she had almost decided to withdraw from the club team when her aspirations were rekindled. Her grandfather told her that the US Congress was taking fresh measures to keep a check on bullying of students, particularly Sikhs, in schools and other places. He also gave her a video CD explaining what is Sikh religion and told her to show it in her school.

With this, Gagandeep’s wish of taking to the 90-yard field has come alive once again. But it’s going to be a long battle for her and several other school going Sikh children in the USA.

A recent 35-page report on bullying against Sikh American school children by The Sikh Coalition, a community-based organization, gives a grim picture about the conditions of Sikh students in the schools. The US Congress has recently drawn recommendations from the report titled “Go Home Terrorist”.

Released in the Capitol Hill early this year, the report mentions that a majority of Sikh children faced bullying in schools and these instances surged significantly post 9/11 attacks. The worst amongst the sufferers were turbaned Sikh children, over two-third (67%) of whom were bullied in their classrooms.

Drawing recommendations from the report, the US Congress members last month asked the US department of education and the US department of justice, to proactively expand outreach to targeted communities, including Sikh Americans, and improve data collection about bullying against Sikh American children.

Representatives of The Sikh Coalition, meanwhile, are elated over the development but feel this is just the beginning.

“No child, Sikh or anyone else, should ever be called ‘Osama’ or ‘terrorist’ and told to ‘go back to his country’. We are committed to documenting instances of Sikh bullying and making efforts for creating awareness and empowering our youth and the communities. We will be going after the school districts that fail to protect our children,” Gurjot Kaur, staff attorney with The Sikh Coalition, told TOI.

In fact several Sikh representatives have observed that there should be a federal law that specifically applied to bullying. In cases where bullying is based on race, colour, national origin, sex, disability or religion, it overlaps with harassment and schools are legally obligated to address it. In a few other cases, bullying finds mention in the criminal code of a state that may apply to juveniles.

Note: Above write-up was originally published by “Times of India” under title: “Responding to the findings of a Sikh organization, US Congress has asked the departments of education and justice to expand outreach to Sikh Americans in schools” by Aditya Kant, TNN | Jul 7, 2014, 02.18 AM IST at source url: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Responding-to-the-findings-of-a-Sikh-organization-US-Congress-has-asked-the-departments-of-education-and-justice-to-expand-outreach-to-Sikh-Americans-in-schools/articleshow/37924842.cms

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Related Topics: Sikh Coalition, Sikhs in United States, United States of America

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