An Elmhurst teenager stands accused of a hate crime this week after a round of ?your mama? jokes escalated into violence between a Muslim student and a Sikh student at Newtown High School last Thursday.
The victim, authorities said, is 15-year-old Vacher Harpaal, who was forced into a bathroom and out of his turban at scissor point by 17-year-old Umair Ahmed. ?I saw the boy afterwards, he had a black eye and one side of his hair was cut short,? said one student at the Elmhurst high school after the incident.
Some rumors are still afoot that the whole thing was a hoax and that Harpaal, who grows his hair long and wears a turban as required by his religion ? asked Ahmed to do the cutting. Others have said it was just a schoolhouse prank and doesn?t rise to the level of a hate crime.
But District Attorney Richard Brown is unequivical in his conclusion that Ahmed was motivated by bias. He offers as evidence the following conversation, taken in statements by police, that occurred between the two boys just after noon on Thursday:
Ahmed: ?I have to cut your hair.?
Harpaal: ?For what, it is against my religion.?
Ahmed: (displaying a ring inscribed in Arabic) ?This ring is Allah. If you don?t let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring.?
Authorities charge that Ahmed then succeeded in forcing Harpaal to remove his dastar, cutting his hair at the nape of his neck and tossing it around the floor and toilet.
Ahmed has been charged with several counts, including unlawful imprisonment and harassment, both as a hate crime, and faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. He was released on $5,000 bail on Friday and will return to court June 8.
The Department of Education said in a statement it was ?shocked and dismayed? by the incident, adding it is uncharacteristic of the very diverse community of Newtown High School. The school does have some trouble with crime, however, and was put on the city?s list of impact schools amid soaring crime rates last April. It now has additional school safety officers and stronger police presence.
Several students agreed that while violence ? particularly gang-related crimes ? are a problem, attacks of this kind are uncommon. But, some added, little was done to educate the student body in its wake. ?It was nothing that was really discussed in school,? said Junior Yolanda Karrasquillo, ?they want to keep it quiet.?
Yolanda and a few of her friends ? three other juniors and a senior ? said they had never taken a class on world religion. When asked whether she knew the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh, one of her friends asked, ?What?s a Sikh??
The attack is particularly troubling to Sikh leaders because of the deep significance of a Sikh man?s uncut hair. Amardeep Singh, legal director of the Sikh Coalition explained, ?Losing one?s hair ? which is an article of faith in the Sikh religion ? is worse than death.?
The attack on Harpaal, one Sikh leader believes, was definitely biased. ?The person who did it, he knew how he can hit him under the belt,? said Saranjit Singh, of the World Sikh Peace Foundation.
Saranjit Singh worked with Bayside Councilman Tony Avella to put together a news conference last week decrying the crime. He believes that the school, which is praised for being diverse, may quietly struggle with being divided. ?There are cliques. There are groups ... it has become Muslims versus Sikhs,? he said.
The Department of Education has no plans to enhance cultural education at the school, citing the existing peer mediation and leadership training programs that teach conflict resolution and interethnic understanding.
But Saranjit Singh and Amardeep Singh both indicated they hoped to talk further with school leaders about the possibilities of educational programming. ?A very simple thing I always believe is, ignorance creates fear and fear creates hatred. ... We are only trying to do one simple thing, to bring education,? Saranjit Singh said.
Amardeep Singh added that his group is still hoping to speak to the victim?s family before rushing to judgment about the allegations. Still, they were already concerned it may not have been isolated and may even be part of a trend.
While the official results of the coaltion?s survey of 200 Sikhs under the age of 18 have not yet been released, Amardeep Singh said a recent random sampling was ?really disturbing,? showing that 50 percent of respondents reported they had experienced incidents of harassment.
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