Sikh student allowed to bring religous sword to school

The Kirpans I've seen are about as dangerous as a letter opener. There's no edge at all, and not much of a point. And while some might be sword-like for ceremonial purposes, most look like small letter openers from what I've seen.

You could probably cause more harm by thwopping someone on the head with the hilt than by poking them with one.

I don't see the problem here, I equate it to holy clothing for a Mormon, or even a cross necklace for a Christian. When it comes to a knife it's all about what you plan to do with it, and if it's under his clothes then... out of sight, out of mind. Obviously drawing and using or threatening to use it shouldn't be allowed, or just brandishing in general but I see nothing wrong with simply carrying.

As far as the whole zero tolerance policy on weapons goes. Zero tolerance is the easy way out, it's for people who don't want to acknowledge an issue. Zero tolerance means zero thinking is required. Zero discussion is to be had. And zero compromise is allowed. In an educated and civilized society, nothing should be zero tolerance.

sikh

a reply to: TheMainEvent

We had this issue on the other side here a couple years ago. Kids werent allowed to bring weapons into schools though. Im not sure if its changed since then.

The adults were the bigger problem, carrying full sized swords in public. They were told not to. I havent seen any since then.

Im very much for religious tolerance but weapons in schools?! Come on...

originally posted by: Dr1Akula
Would we trust a child playing with fire, driving vehicles, handle shotguns, cleavers, axes,etc

Back in my day we called that being in the boyscouts, or in my case the the royal rangers.

a reply to: Domo1

Well, the Mrs protested about me keeping them in the kitchen and lounge; it's safer than my shed atm; my chainsaw was lonely (and no, the mrs does not accept this reason but tough lol); and they scare burglars way more than an air rifle.

Plus i weally wuv my axes xxx

He might not use it due to religious beliefs but i doubt the thug/s who jump him so they CAN use it would care.

Now due to the exposure all the little thugs know where they can get a knife/sword whenever they want one - just look for the nearest guy in a turban.

a reply to: skalla

It just clicked. Not American. Gotcha.

Laughed at that last line!

I just keep a Glock. Night sites, surefire light and hollow points. There might be an AR 15 under the bed too...

a reply to: nukedog

No I am looking at the single standard that is sweeping the nation. Christmas carols being forbidden from being sung at school events, the removal of prayers from schools, the outright forbidding of religious symbols on school grounds. All of that is something that can be used against the school, with the allowance of one child bringing a religious object to school.

So there you have it, we can not complain, if say a prayer is done before a graduation, or a cross is displayed openly on a school campus, if one child of an opposing religion is allowed to have a symbol of his faith there on school grounds.

originally posted by: skalla
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Well Kirpans were not worn in the UK by the thousand or so Sikhs that lived near me when one was free to carry a blade in the UK.

Knives in school belong in the canteen and arts and craft classes.

Actually the UK offensive weapons act has a very specific allowance for Sikh's to be allowed to carry Kirpans. The problem is, its not widely known about, either by Sikh's or Police.

The carriage of bladed weapons is illegal under section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. However, there is a specific defence for a person to prove that he had it with him for "religious reasons". There is an identical defence to the similar offence (section 139A) which relates to school groundssection 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

Meaning that Sikhs in the UK, can and always could wear the Kirpan both in public and in schools, if they wished. Notably, the security staff at the London 2012 Olympics had to be given specific guidelines to allow Kirpan wearers into the stadium, as a lot of them tried to confiscate the Kirpan.

Also, the Kirpan is NOT a sword. Its a small, highly symbolic dagger that is normally kept unshaprned (although it can be sharpened). The historical reasons for it are interesting (I just read Wikipedia about it.)

for a scifi twist, khan noonian singh (khan from star trek) = sikh

this one is interesting

A Sikh must also have the courage to defend the rights of all who are wrongfully oppressed or persecuted irrespective of their colour, caste or creed.

so to be a good helper of a sikh, you must defend their rights to bring their kirpan to school/etc. and then we can all stand back to see if they defend our rights to bring our religious stuff to school. should be interesting. doubtful it will help as the folks in charge are following some kind of mandate to exterminate christians from the planet. but none the less, we shall see if the sikhs will defend the christians.

baited breath, i tell ya. pins and needles. cliff hanger.

a reply to: undo

Perhaps you could take a look for info re Sikhs fighting for and alongside Christians.

Hint: It's already happened quite a lot.

originally posted by: skalla
a reply to: undo

Perhaps you could take a look for info re Sikhs fighting for and alongside Christians.

Hint: It's already happened quite a lot.

awesome. that's encouraging. nice to know.

a reply to: undo

Just look into Sikh Military History. It's a good read.

Also think about where they come from and who ruled there for a couple of hundred years.

Just as a matter of note - the Kirpan carried day to day by a Sihk is far from a sword- its a unsharpened knife and a small one at that.

In most cases , the person would have a better weapon in the form of a pencil or pen. Most young children that carry a Kirpan also have the blade locked into the sheath by 2 screws making it impossible to unsheathe without a lot of time and preparation. This is specifically done to teach that the action of drawing a weapon should never be done quickly , as drawing the blade without good reason is akin to blasphemy in Judaic religions.

Lastly , in India and the surrounding areas , whenever Muslim Extremists began persecuting Christians and Jews, it was the Sihk population that has gave refuge to them , even laying their lives on the line to protect those being hunted.

Personally , I believe that he should be allowed to carry it proudly and the school system needs to pull the stick out of its rear - hell have the stuff I did in middle school and high school would have gotten me arrested and a article on yahoo.
We have become a nation of narcissists - he/she doesn't look/act/believe like me so it must be bad/evil/wrong......Sadly its what is stagnating humanity as a whole.

so sikhs in the area of the event, if you bring your religious stuff to school, you will provoke an incident from christians who will not be happy that they are not allowed to do so. this will force sikhs to make a stand, in defense of christians being able to do the same, which will earn them the ire of the muslims, unless the muslims are the ones who are not being allowed to bring religious stuff to school, in which case the muslims will be up in arms, the sikhs will be provoked to defend them and the christians will come unglued, because at that point, they would be the only ones not allowed to bring their religious stuff to school. no matter how ya spin it, it's a huge mess. the people making these decisions shoulda just left it alone in the first place. now it's being used to socially engineer the environment.

what.a.mess.

a reply to: undo

Really, this guy should wear the badge pin version of the Kirpan, jewellery such as crosses should be allowed (are they really verboten across the whole US school system? You guys are nuts) and we should just get on with stuff without referring to Muslims all the time and having ludicrous notions like there is a worldwide conspiracy to eliminate Christians.

Humans, eh?

i think it is ridiculous.
a sword is a sword. 3 inches long or 3 feet.

i will never understand it.....religion has no place in public schools.

leave the swords at home...

this day in age when people are so worried about safety and violence they let a kid bring a blade...

oh but its fine....he is not allowed to take out from under his clothes....

well in that case i guess there is no possibility of a problem....
kids always follow rules right...whats to stop him from whipping it out every chance he gets to show it off?
whats to stop the school bully from trucking this kid from behind and taking his precious sword?

its a damn school. i cant believe people are fine with this

edit*
i just googled kirpan...

theyre pretty damn big....no way they should let him carry that....
when someone gets eviscerated its on them...

originally posted by: skalla
a reply to: undo

Really, this guy should wear the badge pin version of the Kirpan, jewellery such as crosses should be allowed (are they really verboten across the whole US school system? You guys are nuts) and we should just get on with stuff without referring to Muslims all the time and having ludicrous notions like there is a worldwide conspiracy to eliminate Christians.

Humans, eh?

well let me see--christians being killed all over the middle and near east (moreso anglicans/ protestants/coptics, than catholics, but also catholics, depending on what version of islam is prominent in the area). christians being killed in europe. christians being imprisoned in china. i don't think there's a christian anywhere near north korea.

i can tell ya right now, that europe is a boiling pot, and the label on the side of the pot is abrahamic faiths. if all three abrahamic religions, don't get out of there, they are gonna get stomped with government approval. in the usa, race is being used to kill white christians and the whites are not having more children (the current generation of caucasians is not producing enough new offspring to replace the ones who have died and with each successive generation there are fewer christians). this leaves only black christians and hispanic christians, unfortunately, race is also being used to stir up hatred between hispanics and blacks.

whoever is behind all that, is a diabolic genius of the first magnitude of awful.