Courtesy: Modesto Bee by: Garth Stapley

LIVINGSTON: The eyes of many are upon a gurgling volcano in this quiet northern Merced County town.

 Back in January, few dreamed that an issue here embroiling school violence and religious freedom would erupt into a federal case without precedent, watched by many across an entire continent.

Back then, the mention of “kirpan” was met by blank states. Today, many know it as a small, ceremonial knife worn by devout Sikhs.

The kirpan – resembling a dagger with ils curved, 4-inch blade – will be the focal point of a hearing before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court Of Appeals Tuesday in San Fran- cisco. A panel of three federal judges will hear arguments on be- half of three Livingston siblings who wear kirpans at all times as part of their religion, and on behalf of school officials, who say children, can’t wear them on campus. Both sides hope to wrap up the current phase of the lawsuit before Aug. 29; when school bells start ringing again in Livingston.

The case has been sounding an alarm heard far beyond this small community.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, recently introduced a bill that would allow Sikhs to carry kirpans on campus, Lockyer hopes the bill will be heard by the Assembly next week, and it could return to the Senate for final consideration before Aug. 31.

Ram Singh, a Bay Arca Sikh leader who has championed the Livingston cause since the kirpan- carrying Cheema children were turned away in January, said he approached Lockyer when it is- came apparent that the lawsuit would tum into a drawn-out affair.

Just how SB 89 would affect the federal lawsuit, or vice versa, is far from clear. Attorneys on both sides agree that a win for the Sikhs in either arena would clear them to wear kirpans to school Livingston Superintendent Henry Escobar said he urged Singh to go to the Legislature when the controversy first surfaced.

Modesto City Schools Assistant Superintendent Sharon Rohrke said she is closely following developments in both the bill and the Court case. Until state Law prohibiting Weapons on campus it’s amended, no Kinparis will be allowed in her district, she said.

 Modesto City Schools has received a few requests from students to wear kirparis, Rohrke said, but all agreed to instead wear neck- laces symbolizing the covenant made by baptized Sikhs to always wear kirpans.

A few students in Livingston also Featured to school wearing symbolic Medallions after eh gi Outlawed their  Sylvia Christensen, spokes- -woman for the Merced Union High School District, which includes “Livingston, confirmed that some ‘students at Livingston High were “suspected of carrying kirpans – “typically worn under clothing .When the case corrupted

“We asked the students not to wear them,” Christensen said,” and »as far as I know, they do not.”

Lee Britten ham. Superintendent of the Yuba City Unified School “District which has 1,500 Sikh students, said his policy “accommodating kirpans – dulled “and riveted to sheaths – will not “change regardless of what happens in the courtroom or the state “capital.

“Let them come and raise hell “With us;” Britienham invited. “We “came up with an option we determined was safe, prudent and med the cultural and religious demands of the community.”

 The Livingston case is also being watched as far away as Canada, where attorney Shirish Chotalia succeeded two months ago in defending a Sikh Canadian, Mountie’s right to wear a turban. Attorneys commonly make reference to cases in other countries when there is no precedent, /Chotalia said.

San Francisco attorney Stephen “Bomse, who is cooperating with “the American Civil Liberties “Union on behalf of the Cheema children, has referred to an almost “identical lawsuit won by Sikh students on the outskirts of Toronto “in. 1991, Educators there are watching the Livingston case “out of smugness, because we’ve already Bone through it,” said trustee Catharine Campbell, whose board of education spent more than $300,000 in its attempt to keep Kirpans out of classrooms.

But no one is watching the Livingston case closer than the local Sikh community, “America 18 the only place we can hope to get justice,” said Alit Singh, secretary of the Indian Com- munity Center in Turlock. “This is not my sentiment, but that of all Sikhs. If we are not given justice in America, there is no place we can go.”

Article extracted from this publication >> August 19, 1994