Ezra Guttmann, John Palermo, and Christian Fay AP World Are Schools Justified in Banning Sikh Kirpans?

Public schools in todays society have faced numerous conflicts with Sikh kirpans. A kirpan, an object that appears as a knife, is a dagger required to be worn and only supposed to be used in dire self defense by the articles of faith in Sikhism. In Sikhism, the kirpan is a symbol of the struggles made by Sikhs to decipher and choose good over evil. The Sikh kirpan is also a symbol for Sikhism itself; in fact, a kirpan is a symbol for Sikhism just as the Cross is a symbol for Christianity and as the Star of David is a symbol for Judaism. However, it is the fact that a kirpan is a knife that makes schools attempt to ban the wearing of the kirpan for safety reasons. Technically, if a school does not allow a person to wear a kirpan in school, then that person has a reasonable lawsuit against the school district because their decision violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and similar aspects of the laws of other nations right to exercise Freedom of Religion. However, a school district should be able to place restrictions to maintain the public safety of the students and faculty. For example, restrictions like keeping the kirpan under their clothing at all times and keeping it in a case of some sort which is locked by a school administrator might be a good way to reduce the availability of the kirpan to the child during school hours. In public schools, school administration is not justified to ban the presence of kirpans completely, as it discriminates against those of the Sikh religion by denying Sikhs of their right to exercise Freedom of Religion; however, school administration should have the right to set up restrictions regarding to the appearance, usability, and accessibility of kirpans in order to maintain public safety.

In order to protect both the rights of an individual to practice freedom of religion, expression, and speech and the right of a

public student body to attend school free from potential harm, a creative compromise must be fashioned. A student body has a right to know that when they enter the doors of their school that they are safe from any harm induced by weapons. This right owned by the student body forces school officials in public schools to ban all weapons. At first, this ban seems morally correct and reasonable; however, this ban on weapons in schools turns slightly unconventional when it contradicts the rights of the people to freely exercise their religion. Sikhism, a monotheistic religion founded during the 16th century, requires that all baptized peoples of Sikhism are to wear a kirpan. The problem which starts a whole controversy is that a kirpan is a small knife or dagger. A kirpan is only to be used in dire self-defense. However, a child which holds a kirpan is only a child and with that comes the sole judgement of a child. A child cannot be held responsible to make a reasonable judgement regarding a life-or-death scenario, so the schools have the right to limit those factors by setting restrictions regarding the accessibility to kirpans. These restrictions can include keeping the kirpan under clothes and having the student who owns the kirpan to go to a school administrator daily and have it locked inside a case, but the student still gets to have possession of the kirpan that is in this locked case. Notice that these are simply restrictions regarding the appearance and accessibility of kirpans because a student cannot be held responsible to make a wise judgements regarding life-or-death scenarios; moreover, there is not a complete ban in place against kirpans because that would violate the First Amendment, and other laws in place in countries around the world, of free exercise of religion. In public schools, school administration is not justified to ban the presence of kirpans completely, as it discriminates against those of the Sikh religion because it denies Sikhs of their right to exercise freedom of religion; however, school administration should have the right to set up restrictions regarding to the appearance, usability, and accessibility of kirpans in order to maintain public safety.

Before going into details about why kirpans are dangerous to the student body, it is important to understand the history behind the kirpan. Sikhism was founded in the 16th century by Guru Nanak. Ten other Gurus have followed Nanaks foot steps in leading and advising the peoples of Sikhism. The Guru who was responsible for mandating Sikhs to hold possession of kirpans goes by the name of Guru Gobind Singh. He said that all Sikh peoples would wear five special signs to show that they were Sikhs. These signs are commonly known as the five Ks. The names of each sign are kesh (uncut hair), kanga (comb), kara (steel wrist band), kirpan (sword), kaccha or kacchera (a kind of short trousers). Male Sikhs are required to wear the five Ks once they are baptized. Women are not required to wear the five Ks, but many of them choose to wear them. The baptizing process is specifically called the Khalsa. The Khalsa is conducted by five Sikhs who are already members of the Khalsa. The members fill an iron bowl with a liquid called amrit and stir it with a sword. The people who want to join the Khalsa must drink some of this liquid and what is left of the liquid is sprinkled on their hair and eyes. After a series of prayers, the ceremony is concluded with everyone eating a wet food called karah parshad. Nevertheless, the five Ks require everyone who goes through the process of Khalsa to wear a kirpan to distinguish that they are loyal Sikhs. A kirpan is supposed to remind Sikhs that they are and will always be warriors against evil. However, Guru Gobind Singh does say in the articles of Sikhism that a kirpan is not a weapon for attacking people, but for defending Sikh beliefs and protecting the weak and helpless. The problem is that most Americans do not understand this at all. Beyond the 50 states, there is another world out there that goes beyond the comprehensions of most Americans. The religions, the cultures, the technology, the languages, the people, the social norms, etc. in America are different from any other country in the world. Many Americans do not realize how different life is across the globe. Moreover, when we as Americans finally find that something or someone is different we try to elude it or him/her

because we are scared due to our lack of knowledge about the world beyond us. In general terms, we as Americans may cringe when we see that a fellow passenger enters an airplane with a turban on their head. We may cringe because we relate these people who wear turbans with the Islamic Extremist terrorists who hijacked multiple planes on September 11, 2001 and sent them crashing down into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Many Americans can only relate these people who wear turbans to terrorists because the terrorist attacks were the only time many Americans were exposed to these people who wear turbans. Moreover, many Americans may have never been educated beforehand about these people who wear turbans, so the terrorist attacks educated many Americans to think that those who wear turbans are bad people. The following passage is an excerpt of an article on USATODAY.com: Thirty-nine percent of respondents to the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll said they felt at least some prejudice against Muslims. The same percentage favored requiring Muslims, including U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID "as a means of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States." About one-third said U.S. Muslims were sympathetic to al-Qaeda, and 22% said they wouldn't want Muslims as neighbors. As written in this excerpt, there is a large percentage of Americans who hold an anti-Muslim attitude. The article was written in 2006, so it is reasonable to assume that the Americans who hold this antiMuslim attitude feel this way because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 because the terrorist attacks occurred only five years before the article was written. This anti-Muslim attitude held by many Americans proves that most of America have little to no experience, education, and/or exposure to people and things that are not primarily seen in American society because many Americans relate anyone who is Muslim to the terrorists on September 11, 2011. This lack of knowledge owned by most Americans about the world beyond America started this whole

controversy against kirpans. Most Americans do not understand that kirpans are not meant to be weapons, but it is a symbol to show that Sikhs are warriors against evils. Schools have been known to act quickly to ban the presence of kirpans completely because they see them only as weapons that can harm the student body and faculty members and not as religious items. It is only when it is brought up to the attention of school administrators that kirpans are religious items and they are illegal to ban them in public schools. However, the safety of the student body is also very important and restrictions should be fashioned in order to keep threats of injury and harm away from the student body. Also, all Sihks practice Ahimsa, the act of nonviolence, and the kirpans are only meant to be drawn in dire self defense and religious rituals. Only orthodox sihks are required to wear all of the five ks, and any sihk who was willing to wear/partake in all 5 ks would be a very religious person, meaning they would never pull out the kirpan on another person unless they are defending themselves or another person. Also, many Sikhs told in schools tols to remove the kirpan, have not done so, resulting often in expulsion. However, this proves that they care more about the religion than expulsion from school, which must mean that they recognize its importance and would never use it as a weapon against another defenseless school student. However, if the weapon is drawn on another student for any reason other than dire self defense, it can be acceptable take the kirpan away from the student. However, the reality is, that if a student really wanted to hurt another student, this could be done many other ways without the kirpan. A student could sneak a knife into school and use it on another student if he/she wished to. Most schools do not have very tight security at all. A student could also use a scissor, heavy object, etc. if he/she really wanted to do so. Many parents see a large problem with having a knife at school, without realizing the dangers already present. Such as the incident at columbine High school. Nobody could have predicted the events that happened there, as it was assumed to be safe. This shows, however, that

weapons can be brought to school in many more ways than just carrying this ceremonial dagger. It is evident that if the Sikhs are denied the rights to wear the kirpan, the resulting situations can get ugly. Students very often get expelled, and lawsuits against the school soon follow. The schools will argue that the child is endangering the student body, while the student will argue that it is violating freedom of religion. Who is correct? Obviously that answer is disputed, as court cases have a difficult time deciding who is right about the affair. Many Sikhs will feel as though the few examples that do exist because of Kirpans set a stereotype for the rest of them. For example, several stabbings have occurred throughout the world in public places, but are such a miniscule minority of all Sikhs, the threat is really nonexistent. It is as if saying that because some people are violent, all humans are violent, which is obviously not true. Toronto News has an article that says by reducing the size of the kirpan allowed in public schools, it can be made safer. The Sikh religion does not require a specific sized Kirpan. They can range from 2 inches to sword length. The article also states that at 2 inches, it can be worn around the neck, which is much safer than around the waist. In response to the occasional violent act committed by these Kirpans, most Sikhs will say that it is just a random occurrence, and that misuse of the Kirpan should not be seen as being connected to Sikhism as a whole.
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