Sikh Boy’s Turban Set Alight in US School
A fellow student from Hightstown High School in New Jersey, set fire to the religious turban worn by the Sikh teenager in an unprovoked attack on school grounds. The victim is one of only two turban-wearing Sikhs attending Hightstown High School in New Jersey. On Monday, May 5, 2008, the school held a fire drill and all students were instructed to gather on the school playground.
The Sikh student was chatting to his friends when a student he did not know came up behind him and set fire to his patka (a smaller version of a full Sikh turban) using a lighter. The Sikh student “felt something hot” on his head and immediately patted his patka to put out the flames. Disaster was averted, but a great deal of emotional damage had already been done.
This is not the first time a Sikh child has been attacked in New Jersey schools. A bias-motivated attack against a Sikh boy at Marlboro High School in 2003 led to severe contusions to his head and his parents’ eventual decision to move him back to school in Britain. As a result of that incident, New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights found “probable cause” that the school failed to meet its legal obligations when it did not protect the boy from bias-based harassment at school.
In 2006, Lucille Davey, New Jersey’s Department of Education Commissioner, sent a strongly worded memorandum to all school principals to reinforce the need to create a safe environment specifically for Sikh students. That memorandum cited other bias incidents against Sikh students in New Jersey.
It is ironic that Khalistani proponents have not made any attempts to raise a voice against such injustice meted to Sikhs world around. A lot of Khalistani proponents like the infamous Dr. Amarjit Singh of Khalistan - Affairs Center (KAC) sit in posh offices in US and do nothing about injustice to Sikh community in Canada and US.
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