A primary school student in the UK, eight-year-old Kaiden Singh has been banned from wearing his kara to school because it breaches the uniform policy.
The kara is part of the five key symbols of the Sikh faith, which also include kesh, kanga, kachha and kirpan.
Mirror reports Kaiden Singh has worn his Sikh religious bangle since birth and he was asked to remove it after he started at his new school, Summerhill Primary School in Tipton, in the West Midlands region last month.
His father, self-employed businessman Sunnie Singh said, "I was totally gobsmacked and completely shocked. It is a religious symbol and a religious principle. We wear it for religious reasons, it's not to give a statement or for fashion."
The 30-year-old said he has told his son to say no if he is asked to remove his kara as it does not qualify as "jewellery".
"The school have threatened my son and said he'll be excluded if he continues to wear his bangle. They shouldn't do that to a child. They're trying to class it as jewellery but it's not, it means a thousand words to us. It's racist and in my mind discrimination," Singh told Mirror.
The family is currently taking up the matter through the school's official complaints procedure.
Summerhill Primary School has claimed that it has offered to discuss the matter with the parents.
Head teacher Kerry Rochester said, "Our school uniform policy does state no jewellery, only ear studs if a child has pierced ears. All parents are made aware of this when they send their children to our school.
"And, as with all parents, Kaiden's mum and dad signed the school's agreement form accepting our policies when he started in September. We are a bit taken aback by this because we do consider religious items and we had arranged to meet Kaiden's parents on Wednesday to discuss the matter with them."
MELBOURNE BASED SIKH FAMILY'S SIMILAR CASE
Sidhak Singh Arora and his father Sagardeep Singh Arora. Source: SBS
Sidhak’s parents, Sagardeep Singh Arora and Anureet Kaur Arora, approached the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal who ruled that the school breached the Equal Opportunity Act.
The tribunal found the school could have amended its uniform policy to allow the child to wear a turban in school colours, and VCAT member Julie Grainger ordered the parents and school negotiate an agreement on what orders could be made to resolve the situation.
