September 5, 2024 (Nationwide) — As students go back to school, the Sikh Coalition continues to take action on the recommendations laid out in Where Are You Really From?: A National Sikh School Climate Report.  Now, we urge sangat members to join us in speaking up at the local, state, and/or federal levels for safer and more inclusive schools. 

By way of reminder, the Sikh Coalition launched Where Are You Really From? in April 2024, with findings based on the results of a survey completed by more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18. The report found eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students reported experiencing at least one incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident and that 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. 

The findings of our report can’t be clearer: It is essential that we do more to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. Accordingly, to mark the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, we have created a wide range of ways that students, parents, and sangat members can help advocate towards this goal! 

Get Involved at the Federal Level: Support the Safe Schools Improvement Act

The Sikh Coalition is supporting the passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act (S.3105/H.R.6031). This bipartisan legislation requires school districts in states that receive Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds to adopt codes of conduct to specifically prohibit bullying and harassment, including on the basis of religion and other protected classes; it also requires that states report data on bullying and harassment to the Department of Education to better address bullying. The Safe Schools Improvement Act is a key recommendation included in WAYRF. 

To take action on this piece of federal legislation, simply click here and fill in your information to send a pre-written letter to your elected officials in the House of Representatives and Senate either thanking them for supporting this bill or urging them to do so. 

Get Involved at the State Level: Contact Your State Elected Officials about an Anti-Bullying Task Force 

Per the Sikh Coalition’s research, 48 of our nation’s 50 states do not have a current statewide task force to combat bullying. The Sikh Coalition believes task forces that are appropriately inclusive of students, parents, educators, administrators, scholars, and others from different backgrounds and communities can perform essential services like ensuring that state’s anti-bullying laws are modern and comprehensive, auditing how those laws are being implemented at the city and school-district levels, and identifying or even creating resources that can help prevent bullying. In summary, they are ‘shortcut’ to ensuring that many of the state-level recommendations included in WAYRF can be more easily implemented.

Learn if your state has an anti-bullying task force here via our clickable map tool. Your state page will provide you with an advocacy tool that allows you to send a pre-written and tailored letter to your state legislators about this issue; it will also show you other information about the Sikh Coalition’s education work in your state.

Get Involved at the Local Level: Speak at Your School Board Meeting

The Sikh Coalition encourages sangat members who wish to get involved at the local level to share insights and recommendations from WAYRF directly with their local school boards and elected officials. So much about our children’s education and school policies is determined at the local level, and there is no better way to make your voice heard than speaking up in public forums and making sure our community is seen by those who have the power to effect policy change.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

August 28, 2024 (New York, NY) — The Sikh Coalition continues to help teachers, parents and students prepare to go back to school with free educational resources, including guidance from our latest landmark product: Where Are You Really From?: A Sikh School Climate Report (WAYRF).

By way of reminder, the Sikh Coalition launched Where Are You Really From? in April 2024, with findings based on the results of a survey completed by more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18. The report found eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students reported experiencing at least one incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident and that 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. 

The findings of our report can’t be clearer: It is essential that we do more to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. Accordingly, the Sikh Coalition has put together multiple webinars and resources to help us achieve that goal together: 

Webinar for Sikh Educators: Final Session Tomorrow! 

The Sikh Coalition has invited Sikh educators to explore key findings in WAYRF, share our resources, and discuss actionable steps that educators can take to create safer and more supportive learning environments for Sikh youth in classrooms across America. If you are a Sikh educator and want to join our final webinar tomorrow, RSVP here.

Webinar About Local Advocacy for Parents and Sangat

All sangat members are invited to join a webinar to discuss how parents and families of children in public K-12 schools can advocate for your children or children in your local sangat by attending your local school board meetings to share insights and recommendations from the WAYRF report. The webinar will take place on September 14 at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT. RSVP here.

Step-by-Step Guide to Addressing Bullying

If you are concerned that your child is being bullied, know that there are many options between doing nothing and filing a serious lawsuit. Our step-by-step guide to navigating a bullying situation, published alongside WAYRF, helps identify what parents can do on their own and how the Sikh Coalition can help along the way.

Updated Sikh Awareness Presentation

Sikh Awareness Presentations are a critical way to share essential information about Sikhs and Sikhi with not just classrooms, but also private employers, interfaith groups, government agencies, and more. The Sikh Coalition has recently updated and expanded our Sikh Awareness Presentation deck, with new designs and additional scripting. View the deck here.

Additional Back to School Resources

Our updated Back to School Toolkit includes the above mentioned Sikh awareness presentation for parents, as well as anti-bullying brochures, lesson plans, Know Your Rights materials, accommodation letters for articles of faith, and more resources that will help increase knowledge among students, teachers, and administrators, as well as protect Sikh children if problems arise at school. 

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

May 13, 2024 (Nationwide) — Since the launch of “Where Are You Really From?” A National Sikh School Climate Report last month, the Sikh Coalition has been hard at work to share the findings of our landmark bullying study with sangats and others across the country.

Over the past several weekends, the Sikh Coalition has tabled at gurdwaras in Fremont, San Jose, and West Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; Palatine, Illinois; Silver Spring, Maryland; Rochester Hills, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Lawrenceville, New Jersey; Richmond Hill, New York; Richfield, Ohio; Austin and Houston, Texas; and Kent, Washington. At these engagements, we have enjoyed the opportunity to share Where Are You Really From? (WAYRF) with parents and children, as well as explain our policy recommendations, speak about our broader education work, and field questions about bullying.

If you are interested in inviting a Sikh Coalition staffer to your gurdwara to speak about our bullying research, advocacy, and legal work—or if you yourself would like to table and hand out resources—please email [email protected] for more information. In the weeks ahead, we also look forward to sharing more about how parents and sangat members can get involved in sharing WAYRF and its conclusions with educators and policymakers. From talking to your child’s teacher to speaking before your local school board, sign up here to learn how you can engage in these important efforts!

In addition to our efforts to connect with sangat, we continue to use WAYRF as an opportunity to meaningfully engage policymakers and allies. The Sikh Coalition’s advocacy team has already shared the report’s recommendations with more than 60 U.S. congressional offices. Our education team has also ensured that the findings are available to a wide variety of audiences across the nation, from being included on New York City’s “Respect for All’ anti-bullying resource website to a presentation by Senior Education Manager Upneet Kaur to the Honesty for Ohio Education Coalition, which includes Buckeye state organizations, state board members, and educators.  

Finally, last week, Sikh Coalition Legal Director Giselle Klapper, Senior Staff Attorney Sahel Kaur, and Federal Policy Manager Mannirmal Kaur traveled to Washington, DC, to brief attorneys and other civil servants from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on WAYRF’s policy recommendations and our experiences from more than 20 years of taking severe bullying cases. We look forward to continued engagement with federal agencies about how they can do more to prevent and address bias-based bullying.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

April 18, 2024 (New York, NY) — Today, the Sikh Coalition is proud to launch our newest report: “Where Are You Really From?” A National Sikh School Climate Report. This report serves as a comprehensive study of bullying and other issues faced by Sikh students, building upon our 2014 report Go Home, Terrorist. 

From February through March of 2023, more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18 completed the Sikh Student Survey. The survey asked questions about bullying, their interactions with both peers and staff, their knowledge of bullying reporting procedures, the microaggressions they face, and whether classroom policies and conversations allow them to not just practice their faith freely, but share and celebrate it. After analyzing this survey data, the Sikh Coalition—along with our California-based academic colleagues, research partner Dr. Kavita Kaur Atwal and research consultant Dr. Erin Knight—have emerged with a comprehensive and current sense of school climate for Sikh youth across the country. 

An in-depth analysis of the data is available in the digital copy of Where Are You Really From? (WAYRF) and online at thesikh.co/WAYRF. Key findings include: 

Sikh students continue to be bullied at alarmingly high rates, yet don’t always describe what they experience as bullying. 78% of students reported experiencing behavior that qualifies as bullying, but only 49% said they were bullied.
Sikh male students with religious head coverings are highly likely to be bullied. 77% of Sikh male students with dastaars or patkas reported being bullied at least once, and the data further showed that male Sikh students are generally facing higher rates of discrimination and more violent forms of bullying in schools.
Sikh students are bullied by school staff. A shocking 11% of Sikh students reported being bullied by or facing discrimination from the very adults charged with educating and protecting them.
Sikh students somewhat understand how to report bullying, but often face inaction when they do. 74% of Sikh students said they know how to report bullying at their school, but 46% report “never” or “almost never” doing so—perhaps because 63% said that teachers or staff “almost never” or “never” intervened when bullying happened in front of them. 
Sikh students are less safe in less inclusive schools. When asked about inclusion of Sikhi in educational materials and school policies, more than 50% of Sikh students reported that their school is “not at all” inclusive of their religion. Data also indicate that less inclusivity significantly predicts more bullying incidents.
Sikh students who are bullied face poorer mental health outcomes. Data shows that bullying incidents (actual and perceived) are significantly related to higher scores on tests that measure a depressed mood. 
Sikh students face high rates of microaggressions, but may not recognize them as bullying. 82% of Sikh students reported experiencing at least one microaggression, but the majority who did so did not self-report being bullied; conversely, 73% of students who said they were never bullied reported at least one microaggression. Even if Sikh students don’t consider microaggressions to be bullying, however, those who faced higher levels of microaggressions also reported worse mental health outcomes.
“Our findings in Where Are You Really From? validate years of our work alongside Sikh students, parents, and community members across the nation,” said Dr. Rucha Kaur, Sikh Coalition’s Community Development Director and principal author of WAYRF. “We know that our youth experience bullying; now, we have the data to show the depth of the problem—and to back up a wide range of solutions to make our schools safer and more inclusive for all students. With this report as our latest tool, we will continue to fight for Sikh students to feel safe and seen in their educational environments.”

Based on our study, the Sikh Coalition has developed new recommendations for federal and state officials, state and local education officials, and school administrators and educators that are outlined in WAYRF. Additionally, the report includes an updated step-by-step guide for parents who are concerned that their child is facing bullying, as well as a glossary of terms related to Sikhi for non-community member audiences.

To read the report in its entirety and view our other education resources, visit thesikh.co/WAYRF. Additionally, you can learn more about the report by joining our Sikh Coalition Live via Instagram with Dr. Kaur and Dr. Atwal on Thursday, April 25, at 3:30 PM ET. In the weeks ahead, we look forward to sharing more about how parents and sangat members can get involved in sharing WAYRF and its conclusions with educators and policymakers.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.