

“I wish people knew that Sikhs are not terrorists, and we do not hide weapons under our Damalas,” said Gurleen. On a mission to promote belonging and inclusivity, the girls developed a slide deck and encouraged their peers to ask questions to help tackle stereotypes and preconceived notions about Sikhs. And other students will probably experience this too.” “I’m thinking she must’ve felt a bit left out. “I remember Gurleen mentioning that when she first came to MELS, no one really knew about her religion,” said Bhagwatpreet about her classmate. Together, Satnam Kaur, Gurleen Kaur and Bhagwatpreet Kaur collaborated with their teachers to first create a Crew lesson that would function as an introduction to Sikhism before the grade met virtually for a larger community meeting.
OUTWARD CONJURE WEAPON FREE
The teachers helped recruit other Sikh students who were interested in participating, and, inspired by a project conducted in 2017 by student advocacy group Hate Free MELS, decided that a community meeting would be the right forum. “We are a school that believes in equity for all, and we must set that example,” said Ajulia Bryan, a special education and math teacher at MELS. This simple conversation was the spark that ignited a student-led initiative to educate the entire 7th grade community at MELS about the Sikh religion. After having that conversation about how I personally need to do better, I asked if she’d like to plan something with me so that kids do learn about Sikhs before the end of the year.” “We had addressed so many current events in social studies but never the ones about Sikhs. and sometimes the target of misdirected Islamophobia. She was frustrated with how Sikhs are often misunderstood in the U.S. The student shared that she was disappointed that the year was coming to a close and there had been no mention of Sikhs in social studies class. Social studies teacher Lauren Kosasa recalls a conversation she had with a student after class one day this spring.

It also prompted action by a cohort of zealous students at MELS, a NYC Outward Bound School in Forest Hills and an intentionally integrated, unscreened school.
