NEW YORK. The threats began when Gurnam Singh went to middle school.
“Kids say, ‘I’m going to knock you down and trim your hair,’” said Singh, a 13-year-old Sikh who keeps his hair — never cut for religious reasons — in a black turban.
Members of the Sikh community called yesterday for the city to step up enforcement of its anti-bullying rules.
For four years, the city refused to enforce an anti-bullying law in public schools. Mayor Bloomberg had even called the law — passed by the City Council over his veto — “silly.”
He reversed course last September with a new rule aimed at bullying based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability. What changed his mind?
“This did,” said Robert Perry of the New York Civil Liberties Union, pointing to Singh and other Sikh students chanting “Shame” at the Tweed Courthouse yesterday.
Chancellor’s Regulation A-832 was announced after two attacks against Sikh students.
This was the rule’s first year, replied a Department of Education spokesperson, who noted 737 “major crime incidents” were reported to police last year, down 44 percent from 2001.