A National Sikh School Climate Report
Where Are You Really From?In pursuit of fostering safe and inclusive schools for all, Where Are You Really From? sheds light on the bullying faced by students who are visibly Sikh or identify with Sikhi—and what policy-makers, educators, and parents can do to help.
About the Report
In February and March of 2023, more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students between the ages of 9 and 18 completed a survey that asked about their experiences with bullying and inclusion in school. After analyzing this survey data, the Sikh Coalition and our academic colleagues have emerged with a comprehensive and current sense of school climate for Sikh youth across the country.
We have always known that our youth experience alarming rates of bullying; now, we have the data to show the depth of the problem—and to inform a wide range of solutions that we can strive to achieve together.
What is the Sikh coalition?
The Sikh Coalition is the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States. We were founded by volunteers in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, when Sikhs across the nation faced an unprecedented wave of bias, bigotry, and backlash against our visible articles of faith and other aspects of our intersectional identity.
More than 20 years later, the Sikh Coalition conducts unparalleled and proactive education work with the goal of producing a generational shift in Sikh awareness throughout the United States. Where Are You Really From? is now the most current and comprehensive tool we have in this effort.
Report at a Glance
The Sikh Student Survey data provides a number of serious conclusions about the scope of bullying faced by our youth, how they think about and report bullying incidents, and more. Click below to learn more about each of our high-level takeaways.
Sikh students continue to be bullied at alarmingly high rates.
During the 2022-2023 school year, 77.5% of students reported experiencing at least one bullying victimization incident (actual). These incidents are measured by the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale-Revised, a 20-item bullying scale that measures how often students faced incidents that can be characterized as one of the four types of bullying: verbal, physical, social, or cyber. This number is considerably higher than the 49.2% that self-reported being bullied (perceived).
The gap between actual and perceived bullying suggests that Sikh students may not recognize or be willing to acknowledge certain discriminatory behaviors as bullying.
Sikh male students with religious head coverings are highly likely to be bullied.
Of the students who wore a dastaar, patka, or religious head covering, 76.8% report at least one bullying incident. Wearing a religious head covering predicted higher rates of physical victimization specifically, and broadly, male Sikh students reported higher rates of physical victimization than female Sikh students. The data shows that male Sikh students generally are facing higher rates of discrimination and more violent forms of bullying in schools.
Sikh students somewhat understand how to report bullying, but often face inaction when they do.
Even though 73.9% of Sikh students said that they know the procedure, protocol, or policy for reporting bullying at their school, 45.7% responded that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident. In addition, 53.6% of Sikh students don’t know or are unsure of options to report bias-based bullying specifically. Importantly, of the participants who said that comments were at least “sometimes” made in the presence of teachers and school staff, 62.8% said that those adults “almost never” or “never” intervened.
Alarmingly, Sikh students are bullied by school staff.
Of the Sikh students who reported being bullied in school, 10.9% report being bullied by a staff member. In addition, students identified that staff bullied them for their accents or by mocking or disrespecting their articles of faith. In any context, bullying or discriminatory behavior by the very adults charged with educating and protecting students is wholly unacceptable. Sikh students are less safe in less inclusive schools.
When asked about inclusion of Sikhi (Sikhism) in educational materials, school holiday policies, school uniform policies, and sports uniform policies, more than 50% of Sikh students report that each of these items is “not at all“ inclusive of their religion. Additionally, results indicate that less inclusivity significantly predicts more bullying incidents.
Sikh students who are bullied face poorer mental health outcomes.
When asked questions about the frequency of depressed mood and anhedonia (lack of interest, enjoyment, or pleasure from life experiences) and mental health related outcomes (self-confidence, helplessness, and feelings of being left out), results indicate that bullying incidents and perceived peer-initiated bullying are significantly related to higher scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 as well as lower self confidence, more helplessness, and more feelings of being left out.
Sikh students face high rates of microaggressions, but may not recognize them as bullying.
Data in the study showed that 82% of Sikh students reported experiencing at least one microaggression, a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority).
However, the majority of students who reported enduring microaggressions did not self-report being bullied. Also, 73.4% of students who said they were never bullied reported at least one microaggression, which may mean that students do not recognize microaggressive behavior as bullying.
Finally, our data shows that students who face higher levels of microaggressions also report worse mental health outcomes.
“Where are you really from?”
When students are asked this question, the implication—along with so many other words and behaviors—is that Sikh students simply don’t belong.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, inform the following recommendations for federal and state officials, school administrators, and educators.
1. Prioritize initiatives, legislation, and policies that support and increase protections for Sikh students against bias-based bullying.
Decision-makers at all levels have a responsibility to pay special attention to addressing bias-based bullying in schools. Examples of these kinds of recommendations include:
- Establish clear guidance in compliance with Title VI and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act to address religious bullying;
- Require school districts to adopt codes of conduct that specifically prohibit religious harassment;
- Create state legislation facilitating culturally inclusive K-12 curriculum materials alongside funding and training for educators to implement curricula;
- Advocate for the development and implementation of clear and inclusive religious accommodation policies at the state and school district levels; and
- Train all student-facing school staff on recognizing and addressing school bullying, bias-based bullying, microaggressions, and harassment.
2. Provide additional resources and support to educators in facilitating student safety and wellbeing.
- Establish a federal recognition program to honor educators and administrators who are leading the way in creating safe schools and inclusive learning environments;
- Support initiatives and funding to recruit diverse applicants for educator and administrator positions;
- Propose the establishment of cultural curriculum review committees, advisory boards, or commissions within or in collaboration with departments of education at the state level;
- Enhance cultural inclusivity in classrooms through an approach that can account for time and resource constraints faced by educators; and
- Include Sikh awareness training for staff and educators to ensure understanding of the articles of faith and practices of Sikh students and parents.
3. Prioritize accurate, timely, and mandatory data collection.
Examples of these kinds of recommendations include:
- Make the collection of local education agencies and public schools policies on religious harassment a mandatory data element (beginning with the 2024-25 Civil Rights Data Collection);
- Support the Strengthening Educator Workforce Data Act, which would require the collection and disaggregation of educator and principal data to help address educator and administrator shortages and diversity gaps;
- Collect school-specific data on bullying and harassment in order to understand where, when, and how students experience bullying and harassment, as well as ascertain whether adults respond to reported incidents.
4. Allocate resources to better support the mental health needs of Sikh students.
- Ensure that student mental health initiatives by the Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provide cultural competency training for mental health professionals so that they can meet the needs of diverse student populations;
- Support federal and state legislation which attempts to reduce the presence of police and school resource officers in schools, and increase the availability of certified school counselors, social workers, and other behavioral health personnel;
- Include cultural competency training for mental health professionals in any legislation that provides for student access to mental health so that the needs of diverse student populations can be met; and
- Ensure that mental health resources are readily available in schools and that students have access to mental health support as needed.