NEW YORK: An American student was
taken into custody for allegedly assaulting his Sikh classmate and forcibly
removing his patka, the second incident of students from the community being
targeted in US schools within a month.

The attacker, a ninth grader,
was suspended from Richmond School in Queens suburb of New York, United Sikh, an
advocacy group reported without revealing the identities of the two boys.

The victim said the classmate had been bullying him for sometime,
asking him why he did not shave and frequentlypulling at his 'patka.'

In the incident which occurred on Tuesday, the Sikh student tried to
hold on to his 'patka' when his classmate tried to remove it from behind and hit
him in the face with keys. The attacker was taken into custody by police.

Early last month, a 16-year-old student in New Jersey was charged
with hate crime after he set afire to a Sikh student's patka.

"It is
very disconcerting to learn that the administration at Richmond Hill High School
failed to take the reports of bullying seriously," remarked Baljit Kaur, United
Sikh Sikh Awareness Project Coordinator.

"Sikh students being
bullied is a well-documented phenomenon stemming from fear, ignorance, and
misunderstandings concerning the unique Sikh appearance, particularly in the
case of the dastaar, or the Sikh turban."

Sikhs have been the
victims of hate crime in the US after the 9/11 attacks as they are mistaken for
Arabs due to their headgear.

Providing information to students and
answering questions about the Sikh faith and the reason behind a Sikh's
distinctive look would help allay fears, Kaur added.

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