A migrant Sikh family is alleging discrimination after their 4-year-old son was refused admission by a Christian school in Melbourne.
Gurdeep Girn, a practising Sikh and member of the management committee of a Sikh temple in Melbourne's west, has told the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission that his son was discriminated against when Wyndham Christian College denied him enrolment because the four-year-old wore a patka (head covering worn by young male Sikhs).
Wyndham Christian College has denied the allegations.
The college is a new campus in Melbourne’s western suburb of Wyndham Vale, and is enrolling students for the sessions beginning next year. Mr Girn was seeking to enrol his son for the year 2020 and attended a school interview along with his wife on 11 September.
“We were asked how many times we go to temple and what if our son wanted to convert to Christianity when he grows up,” Mr Girn told SBS Punjabi.
A few days after the interview, Mr Girn received a communication from the school declining their application, citing the availability of “limited places”.
Wyndham Christian College site in Wyndham Vale. Source: SBS Punjabi
He alleges the school refused his son a spot because he wears a patka (head covering).
“We were given a sense [during the interview] that they don’t want to take Gurveer because he wears a turban,” Mr Girn said.
“Some of my friends who are from different faiths attended interviews after us, but their children have been accepted [by the school] because they don’t wear a head covering,” Mr Girn says.
Wyndham Christian College rejected the allegations of racial discrimination but did not comment specifically on the case, saying it had not received any communication from the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission.
“So far, the College has received over 400 enrolment applications for the initial 150 places. Offers of enrolment have been made to families from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, including Sikhs, Hindus and people of no faith and Christians,” College chairman Dan Parker told SBS Punjabi.
“The College seeks to support families who are supportive of the Christian identity and ethos of the School and who desire a Christian education for their children,” Mr Parker said.
Mr Girn says his son was very excited to at the prospect of going to a school in the same neighbourhood.
“He asks me every day when he will start the school. But cant’ tell him what has happened. I don’t know how he would feel,” he says.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the school should accommodate Gurveer if he agreed to wear a patka of the colour prescribed by the school.
In what was considered a test case for faith-based schools, the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal found last year that a Melbourne Christian school had breached the Equal Opportunity Act by not allowing a five-year-old Sikh boy to attend the school because he wore a patka.
Melton Christian College insisted during the hearing of that case that its decision was lawful under exemptions to the Equal Opportunity Act, but later agreed to work with Sidhak’s family to find "a constructive way forward".
