By Philip Newman
Sikhs, many from Queens, rallied last week to protest what they said was the failure of school officials to enforce rules against bullying and harassment in schools, some of it by teachers, staff members and security guards.
“We are concerned that the Schools Chancellor Regulation [against harassment] is a promise that is not being fulfilled, a piece of paper that is having little impact on city schools,” said Sundeep Sonny Singh, a community organizer for the Sikh Coalition.
Sikh activists, civil rights advocates and dozens of Sikh schoolchildren singing and chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” demonstrated outside the Tweed Courthouse near City Hall June 30.
The Sikh activists issued a report card in which they graded the performance of the city Department of Education on action against harassment. The grades indicated school officials were passive toward the issue.
“Sikh kids have a really tough time at my school,” said Gurnam Singh, 13, of Richmond Hill, a seventh-grader at MS 72 in Queens.
“Other students have threatened to cut my hair and have tried to pull my turban off. Two weeks ago another student cut me with a hair clip and said he was going to smack my turban off. I told a teacher about it, but nothing was done.”
The Sikh religion prohibits the cutting of hair, which males wear arranged under a turban.
In the past, Sikhs, including both schoolchildren and some adults, have reported being called Arabs and terrorists.
The report found:
• 76 percent of students do not know they can report harassment anonymously by e-mailing respectforall@schools.nyc.gov
• 80 percent of students have never attended a training or presentation session to discourage harassment
• 16 percent of students who reported experiencing bias-based harassment said the harasser was a teacher, staff member or security agent
City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced the special regulation against harassment and bullying in September 2008.
The rules prohibit bullying or harassment based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
The report found 34.5 percent of all types of bullying and harassment are in Queens schools and 25.5 percent of those targeted by harassers are Sikhs.
Many schoolchildren reported they did not know who to report bullying or harassing to and others said they had no confidence anything would be done about it if they did.
Harpal Singh Vacher, a student at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, was forced into a bathroom by a fellow student who cut his hair in 2007. A Muslim classmate from Elmhurst was found guilty of a hate crime but avoided jail.He was sentenced to community service and probation.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 136.
