Experiences of Sikh Children at School

I read an article from Winty Singh on CNN called “This is what a Sikh child faces in America.” It was a great read and has some pictures of role models that are worth looking through and reading about. He writes, “Two decades ago, when I was in the second grade, a substitute teacher asked me to stand up in front of my class and talk about my religion: Sikhism. At 7 years old, I tried to explain it as best I could and avoid being ridiculed. I remember feeling totally unprepared and struggling afterward with the fear of being exposed like that again. At 7, I was already afraid of public speaking. Later that year, we were returning from recess when a classmate pinned me down and intentionally blew his nose on my turban. He was lightly admonished for his actions, but what I remember most was that nobody, including my teacher, understood how devastating it was to have my turban -- a sacred religious article of faith in Sikhism -- desecrated by a bully.”

I saw a report by the Sikh Coalition (a civil rights organization) called “Go Home Terrorist, A Report on Bullying Against Sikh American School Children.” It described the experiences of hundreds of Sikh children interviewed in the US. Some of the commonalities was that it was especially difficult for students in the post 9/11 world where the symbols of our religion have unfortunately gotten confused by many and are associated by bullies with terror. Especially in the case of the patka, keski, or pag (turbans), there is a lot of misinterpretation from children about what is under the turban. I was surprised to read that there was a lack of response on behalf of teachers, and also parents because the parents weren’t able to understand the effects of bullying or advocate for their child due to language barriers. The Sikh Coalition also cited that much information that was included in textbooks about Sikhs was “inaccurate and inflammatory.” Personally, I don’t ever remember growing up seeing Sikhs in any of my textbooks. I think that it should indeed be a core part of our curriculum to teach about Sikhism and to have programs for bullying prevention. Even having role models of different backgrounds come and speak to classes would be very inspirational for the children. There was a similar study done by the World Sikh Organization in the Peel School District in Ontario (which traditionally has a high number of Sikh students) and reported that the rates of bullying were decreasing from their study in 2011 to 2016 with educational interventions which helps to demonstrate that educational interventions make a difference for students. 

I wonder how much bullying we have affecting Sikh students in Canada. My general perception used to be that there is less than the states because we are a mosaic, not a melting pot, diversity is celebrated, people are generally open to learning and educated on different cultures because they themselves come from different backgrounds, and we have role models who are Sikhs in our government. Our schools have a lot of bullying programs due to the advocacy of parent groups who fought for their children who had lost their lives from bullying. Yet even with all these, bullying is obviously still a large problem here for Canadian Sikhs as is apparent from the WSO study and from students that you ask. This is especially true for those who wear their kakkars (symbols of our religion). I think even beyond bullying, there is an effect from the feeling of being different than everyone else.  I can clearly remember the experience of standing out and feeling different as a kid growing up in a largely Caucasian school. I relate to Winty Singh’s example of being put on the spot to answer questions about your religion in front of the class. In the WSO report they mentioned how students are often uncomfortable not knowing how to answer questions from peers and teachers. Growing up I don’t know if I could label or realize how some of my experiences affected me, but looking back I now realize it remembering times when people would pull my braid, make fun of my name, call the mendhi on my hands diseased, or the time I had a teacher threaten to cut my hair while I was asleep. Years later I learned that the key to improving things in our schools was community-wide education. We should arm our own children with knowledge of their Sikhi and arm our parents with knowledge on how and why to advocate for their children in schools. The presence of the Sikh community in the Nagar Kirtan, participating in community events like the cancer walks and fundraisers, working in the community, and sharing our religion and culture with our friends, families and neighbours makes a huge difference. I have started including it in a lot more of my conversations with people when they ask what I'm doing on the weekend or my hobbies. We should be engaging in the community at large whenever we can because those people are in positions then as principals, teachers, parents of children in schools and that's how change is made because they will teach their children too.

References/Readings:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/opinions/sikh-faith-bullied-winty-singh-opinion/index.html

http://www.sikhcoalition.org/documents/pdf/go-home-terrorist.pdf

https://www.sikhcoalition.org/resources/?fwp_resource_types=community-resources

http://www.worldsikh.org/wso_releases_report_on_bullying_of_sikh_students_in_peel_region

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/worldsikh/pages/594/attachments/original/1493222417/WSO_Bullying_Survey_and_Analysis_Report.pdf?1493222417 This looks like a weird link but its actually the WSO Report from 2016

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sehej-kaur/post_12383_b_10622160.html