December 24, 2024 — The Sikh Coalition is proud to share that our legal team has resolved another school accommodation case! To protect the identity of the young Singh in this story, details have been anonymized.

In early November, the Sikh Coalition was contacted by a family living in the southern United States. Their son, a teenage Amritdhari Sikh, had been forced out of school and enrolled in virtual classes after he was discovered to have been wearing a kirpan under his clothing; he had maintained his article of faith for more than a year with no incident, assuming no accommodation was necessary since his family recently immigrated to the United States. Unfortunately, the school declared the kirpan a knife and refused to allow the young Singh to come back for in-person classes until he removed it or agreed to unacceptable restrictions on its wear.

For weeks, the Sikh Coalition’s attorneys went back and forth with the school’s lawyers about how this young Singh could keep his kirpan and resume attending school; it was an uphill battle given that the laws in this state lack in religious accommodations protections and include very strict anti-weapons rules. Ultimately, after a final demand letter warning of a potential lawsuit and outlining precedents across the nation for kirpan accommodations in schools—as well as a final meeting between the family, the school, and the Sikh Coalition—the school relented! Our client will return to physical school in January with a kirpan.

“We are relieved that our son will be able to resume his full schooling in January with this accommodation,” said his parents. “No young person should be told to sacrifice their Sikhi for the sake of a good education, but that is exactly what he was facing—and what he would have had to do, absent the Sikh Coalition’s intervention and support.”

The Sikh Coalition is proud to be the leading provider of expert, free legal support when it comes to kirpan accommodations and a host of other anti-Sikh discrimination matters. The truth, however, is that cases like these are more than legal letters and attorneys’ meetings; our staff researched and consulted on different kinds of kirpans for discussions with the school, traveled to attend the in-person meetings with school officials, and more. While each kirpan case is immensely complex because of varying school, school district, and state laws as well as the risk of creating bad precedents or policies through a lackluster resolution, we continue to do this work because we believe that no one should have to choose between adherence to their faith and the right to simply exist in essential public spaces—including schools.

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