Bill passed in February would allow teachers to wear religious garb
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| Bani Virk, 9, visits from Eugene on
the holiest day in the Sikh religion. Local political leaders were honored Sunday for their work to pass a bill allowing teachers to wear religious garb in public schools at the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple. (Thomas Patterson | Statesman Journal) |
Salem Sikhs celebrated their holiest day Sunday — and several state legislators were on hand.
Speaker of the House Dave Hunt and House Rep. Sara Gelser were among several legislators and community members honored after the religious ceremony to celebrate Baisakhi at Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple.
The day celebrates the first Khalsa in 1699, a Sikh baptism ceremony. Most of the assembled wore head coverings or turbans and thanked the legislators for upholding their right to do so.
Hunt, D-Clackamas County, and Gelser, D-Corvallis, were among those who supported the bill passed in February that overturned a 1923 ban on religious garb in the classroom. The Ku Klux Klan-backed ban was intended to keep nuns from teaching in public schools, Hunt said.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said 'the long arc of history bends toward justice,' and this is a very long arc," Hunt said.
At least 300 people attended the ceremony, where upon plush red carpeting, men were situated on one side and women on the other, wearing gauzy, embroidered and sequined garments common to India.
All in the sanctuary, but a few young children, wore head coverings, including the legislators.
Priests sang prayers and played drums. The assembled faced the Sikh's holy book set on an altar beneath pink veils.
The smell of Indian food — lentil beans, spices, rice — wafted in from another room. Sikhs serve food from the temple around the clock to anyone who asks.
After the ceremony, Sikh leaders gave plaques and vibrant orange scarves to a few special guests such as Hunt, Gelser and Steven Green, Director of Willamette University's Center for Law, Religion and Democracy.
A few guests spoke briefly, including Green: "This is a real step toward religious freedom in the U.S., which I think is one of our highest goals."
The crowd cheered after all were done speaking but did not clap as is custom.
Salem resident Harminder Kaur said now she can change her major at Portland State University from accounting to education if she wants. She also can wear a turban when she tutors at area public schools.
"I'm me, and I'm proud of it, and I'm not going to change to fit in with what everybody else does," Kaur said.
The fight began in 1986, when the Eugene School District fired a teacher for wearing a turban. Her case went to the Oregon Supreme Court, which upheld the old law.
In 2007, a bill to address teachers wearing religious clothes passed the house but failed in the Senate. Legislators passed the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act in 2009 but removed the portion on teachers wearing religious garb in schools because it caused added opposition to a bill already under fire, Hunt said after the ceremony.
This February, legislators passed the bill allowing teachers to wear religious garb. And in July 2011, the bill goes into effect, Hunt said. Before the ceremony, Gelser said the law is a boon to Oregon schools. "We were starting to lose good men and women as teachers," she said.
Jillian Daley
[email protected] or (503) 399-6714