WASHINGTON DC: The Sikh Coalition has launched a national anti-bullying campaign in a leadership role with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
The campaign, Act To Change, seeks to broaden awareness about bullying and the specific problem it poses to Asian American and Pacific Islander students belonging to communities that are targeted at much higher rates than the national average. The new initiative consolidates quality resources for parents, educators and students to identify and respond to the critical problem.
It also works to engage local communities through community pledges and interactive social media. National organizations, community organizations, media outlets and celebrities alike endorse the campaign.
Sikhs have become the poster child for this pervasive problem in post 9/11 classrooms, largely due to their articles of faith. The Sikh Coalition’s 2014 national bullying report found that 67% of turbaned Sikh children in varying U.S. communities have been bullied.
“The bullying of Sikh children is an epidemic,” said the Sikh Coalition’s Law and Policy Director, Arjun Singh. “Misinformation and misunderstanding regarding the Sikh faith, coupled with a dramatic increase in bigoted dialogue towards religious minorities, has resulted in intolerance and bullying in our schools.”
The Sikh Coalition worked with the Department of Justice to settle a landmark bullying case in Georgia against a Sikh child at the end of 2014. The settlement now better protects over 100,000 students across the school district from bullying and represents a first of its kind policy change in the United States.
Harjot Kaur, the Sikh Coalition’s New York City Community Development Manager, works full time with Sikh youth leaders on the bullying frontlines in the largest public school system in the nation.
Neela Pandya
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