Last week, 18-year-old Jagmohan Singh Premi, a Sikh student at Richmond Hill High School in Queens, was attacked by a classmate in what's being investigated as a hate crime. Authorities say another student tried to remove his turban before punching him in the face with a set of keys: Sikh student attacked in Queens. That's racist!
According to the story, Richmond Hill has a problem. Critics from the Sikh Coalition say Sikh students at the school are routinely harassed and that the Department of Education isn't doing enough to address it. What happened last week is only the latest incident.
Premi says it went on for months, from taunting to harassment at the hands of a fellow student. He says he was punched in the eye after the student tried to remove his turban. It apparently happened at his ESL class, where he had been trying to learn English.
The Department of Education needs to step up, acknowledge that this is going on, and take action against biased harassment and bullying. As it happens, Chancellor Joel Klein personally apologized Friday to Premi: Punched Sikh student gets apology from Joel Klein. More here: Hate attack against Sikh student in NYC.
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