ABSTRACT
Given the importance of the turban to a Sikh, it should be evident that harassment of a Sikh on the basis of his hair or turban is not just like any other juvenile humor. In a seminal examination of Sikh students in American schools, Margaret A. Margaret A. Gibson characterized the harassment of turbaned Sikhs this way: for non-Sikh students, such harassment "seemed little more than a childish prank". As with harassment against adults, harassment against Sikh students occurred practically right after the attacks of 9/11. Sikh students, by contrast, were specifically targeted because of the association of the Sikh turban with terrorism. In 2003, a Sikh New Jersey student was repeatedly called "Osama" and was hit on the head, resulting in contusions. These incidents suggest that the harassment endured by the Sikh students was not sufficiently addressed by any supervisory agents or the legal system.
