"Go Home, Terrorist": A Report on the Bullying of Sikh American School Children

“I was in California like seven, six years ago. It was me and my brother – we had jooras [uncut hair tied in a topknot]. . . Just us two were Sikh . . . For two years we got bullied, came home crying every day. Mom got tired of it. She went to school. They didn’t do anything about it. Teachers were racist out there . . . I was in 5th grade, and my dad took us to a barber shop, and he was like, “It’s today.” My mom was crying, my dad was crying. It was the day we just [took our patka] off, and we cut our hair. We went back to school and we still got bullied. And we had to move out to Indiana, just because of the bullies [in California]. I mean, we got bullies out here too. First, there used to be a couple [of] Indians in high school, but now we got all these Indians . . . and now it is calm because me and [my] brother and all these Indians we have, we just fight it off – that’s the only way we got – because the teachers don’t do anything, the principal doesn’t do anything, so we just fight for it.” – L Singh

Bullied in California. Bullied in Indiana. Bullied when he maintained his religiously-mandated uncut hair. Bullied after he cut it. Left to his own devices to end it, L. Singh’s story captures what we learned from young Sikhs across the country about their experience with school bullying in America.

During 2012 and 2013, we surveyed over 500 Sikh students, conducted focus groups with over 700 students, and interviewed 50 Sikh students in four states: Massachusetts, Indiana, Washington, and California. We found that the majority of Sikh children, just over 50%, endure school bullying. And the numbers are worse for turbaned Sikh children. Over two-thirds, or 67%, reported that they are bullied in school. The word “widespread,” particularly as it applies to turbaned Sikh youth, is not an exaggeration. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 32% of all students ages 12 to 18 report that they are bullied in school.

Our government, teachers, and school administrators, how-ever, are not powerless to stop Sikh children from being bullied. The United States Congress should prioritize passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act. The Act would require that schools enact anti-bullying policies and collect data on school bullying for diagnostic purposes. It is also critical that such data collection specifically include data on the rates at which Sikh children are bullied. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently agreed to specifically track “anti-Sikh” hate crimes. The Department of Education should similarly track whether Sikh students are bullied and harassed based on their religion. In the absence of official data, small under-resourced community-based organizations like the Sikh Coalition shoulder the unfair burden of collecting data on bullying and harassment.

Over time, teachers, administrators, textbook manufacturers, legislators, and the media all have a significant role to play in not only creating a safe space to learn at school for Sikhs, but for all children. Until intentional action is taken to end the horrible dynamic described in this report, we fully expect that five and ten and fifteen years from now, Sikh children will still be acutely susceptible to school bullying. It is our hope that the stories and data contained here will compel all to take action to end the bias-based bullying of Sikh school children now.