Two 14-year-old high school sophomores want an apology from a Summit County Common Pleas Court judge because she inquired about their headgear.
Gurneet S. Bedi of Highland Heights and Puneet Singh of Youngstown wore traditional Sikh religious headgear -- a junior version of a turban -- on a field trip to court with the University of Akron Summer Honors Institute on Monday.
They and their fellow high school sophomores and juniors were listening to Judge Jane Bond conduct criminal hearings when Gurneet noticed that the judge seemed to be staring at him.
A few minutes later, court bailiff Jill Coleman spoke with University of Akron assistant professor Pat Millhoff, who was accompanying the group of young people.
Coleman asked Millhoff what the two boys were wearing on their heads.
Millhoff asked the youths to step out in the hallway and explain. Gurneet said he didn't hear her; the bailiff, he said, asked him to leave.
"We call it a patka," Gurneet explained.
As a member of the Sikh religion, which originates in India, he said, wearing this modified form of a turban is part of his religious observance.
Millhoff explained to Gurneet that the headgear might be mistaken by some people as similar to a do-rag, or gang colors. He said he was embarrassed because he believed "the judge thought it was some part of a gang."
Actually, it is the junior version of the full-scale wrapped turban that Sikh men wear.
Gurneet wrote the term "Sikhs" on a paper that the teacher provided to the bailiff.
The two youths were left to sit in the hallway while the bailiff went away, and the rest of the students listened to the hearing. As a lawyer and former officer of the court, Millhoff said, she thought the two should not return to the courtroom with the turbans on their heads until Bond gave permission.
But Gurneet and Puneet knew of discrimination their fellow Sikhs had experienced for their distinctive clothing, and the two decided they would make a stand on their religious rights.
About 15 minutes later, Coleman said, the judge saw the note that said the youths' headgear was religious.
"The judge said, 'OK, they can come back in,'" the bailiff recalled.
But the two Sikh students said they were left sitting in the hallway for about 40 minutes. When they did return, they had a statement to make.
"We want an apology from the judge," Gurneet said. Millhoff relayed the request to the bailiff.
"It would have been salve on a wound," Millhoff said, "but it was an end of a long day."
Bond, who by this time had completed her hearings, said she was not about to apologize.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Bond said yesterday, when asked about the incident.
It is a matter of preserving courtroom decorum and respect that she insists persons remove headgear in court, unless the headgear is religious.
"When I saw these two young men, I did not recognize that as a religious (headgear)," the judge said. "I have seen skullcaps and turbans, and a couple of other things, but I have never seen that."
Bond said she simply asked the bailiff to find out about the youths' headgear. When informed that it was religious, she said, "Fine. . . . That was the end of it."
The judge and bailiff said it was not they who asked the youths to go out of the courtroom. But Gurneet insists Coleman asked him to step outside. The two young Sikhs flatly refused to remove their headgear.
"These children were very much hurt," said Kanverjit Bedi, Gurneet's father.
"They are very good students, are born citizens of America, and have every right to practice their beliefs."
Gurneet attends Sikh temple classes and religious camps to learn about his religious heritage, said his mother, Satinder Bedi. There are about 800 Sikh families in the 60-square-mile area surrounding the nearest Sikh temple, at Richfield.
Adult Sikh men wear full turbans and each one carries a kirpan, a small ceremonial sword. A Sikh man was arrested during a traffic stop in Mentor in 1999 and charged with carrying a concealed weapon because of the kirpan. The case, later dismissed, was of great interest to young Sikhs, Gurneet's mother said.
Gurneet said his fellow students in the university honors program supported him and his friend.
"I think it's a disgrace people are ignorant enough not to understand religious beliefs, especially when one is making decisions in the courtroom," said Yianni Varonis, 15, a student from GlenOak High School in Stark County.
"To misunderstand is one thing, to understand and still not apologize is another."
"I did nothing to apologize for," Bond said. "It was their decision to leave, not mine."
