A 13 year old Surrey girl tried to kill herself after being publicly berated at a Sikh school for allegedly removing her facial and body hair. In fact, says her father, she was taking medication that caused hair loss. Angry parents are now demanding that the private school stop humiliating students and teachers for shaving or cutting their hair a practice that violates the school’s code of conduct. The Khalsa School, partly funded by Victoria, is meeting parents this week to discuss the issue, in the wake of a complaint to the B.C. human rights council and protests by teachers and students.
The complaint was filed by construction worker Mohinder Singh Cudail, whose daughter, he says, was humiliated in front of her classmates for not being a “good Sikh.” Cudail said his daughter swallowed some 30Tylenol pills as a result of the incident at the school on April 24. “She was losing her hair as a result of medication…but the teacher refused to believe her explanation,” said the furious dad, who has since yanked his daughter from the school. School president Ripduman Singh Malik has apologized to the family. “I apologize on behalf of the school for any unknowingly made mistake by the school,” he wrote in a letter.
The council hearing is going ahead. In his complaint, Cudail wrote; “My older daughter was verbally and mentally abused for cutting her body hair…We are a modern Sikh family, we value both eastern and western cultures. Because my children eat meat at home and are not baptized Sikhs, they should not be ridiculed and demoralized in front of their classmates and brainwashed that they are going to hell by following white culture.”
Cudail went public with his complaint, after learning of a similar incident at the school last week. On Friday, parents and students protested outside the school after a teacher was reportedly ordered to bare her arms and legs after being suspected of shaving her body hair. School officials declined comment, but had said last week’s protest was engineered by one “guilty” teacher. Education ministry spokeswoman Leslie White said “the only thing the ministry monitors with independent schools is that the school follows the B.C. curriculum, hires certified teachers and meets municipal requirements for its facilities and buildings.” The school has about 700 students from kindergarten to Grade 10; School rules ban shorts, meat and makeup: In addition to the ban on shaving body hair at the Khalsa School, students are subjected to a strict regimen while on the grounds. Parents must sign a letter agreeing to a code of conduct, before their child is enrolled.
Other rules:
All students and staff are required to wear a head covering at all times, including during physical education activities. Visitors to the school! Must also cover their head. Shorts are banned. During gym class, students wear a sweat strip. Earrings, makeup and nail polish are not allowed. Chewing gum is not permitted on school grounds and while on the school bus. Among other items students are not allowed to have while at school: Tape recorders, radios, skateboards, toy guns and liquid Paper. All lunch or snacks must be vegetarian. Dairy products are allowed. Students who have been baptized in the Sikh faith must also practice the “Five Ks” to fulfill a religious requirement. They have to wear a kirpan (a sword; nowadays a smaller version is carried), a Kara (a steel bangle), Kachha (underwear), kesh (hair, which must not be cut from any part of the body), and a kanga (a comb).
Article extracted from this publication >> July 10, 1996
