12-year-old Texas Sikh accused of issuing bomb threat; mother protests

Sunday, 20/12/2015

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

ARLINGTON (TEXAS): The mother of a Sikh middle-class student accused of threatening to detonate a bomb at his Texas school is asking police to drop charges, saying that her son never made such a threat.

Armaan Singh, 12, was arrested on December 11 after police said he admitted to making the threat while they were questioning him, without his parent’s presence.

He spent three days in juvenile detention before being released and placed under house arrest with ankle monitor. He also was suspended from school.

‘MISUNDERSTANDING STARTED ORDEAL’
Gurdeep Kaur, the mother, said, “A classmate asked whether a battery in Armaan’s backpack was a bomb, and that he said it wasn’t, but the classmate told the teacher he said it was. There was no bomb.”

Kaur added that the family did not learn of Armaan’s arrest until hours after it happened.

She told The Associated Press that she panicked when he didn’t come home from school, and after searching the apartment complex, they went to the school to look for him. She said they called the principal, who told them Armaan had been taken into custody. “She told them that he was with the police but she didn’t know which facility,” said Arlington schools spokeswoman Leslie Johnston.

Kaur said the family finally learned Armaan was in the detention center four hours after his arrest.

“Armaan, who has had three open-heart surgeries, asked to be taken home, but there was no judge available to arrange his probation,” Kaur claimed.

Even though all four of her children were born in the US, Kaur said she wonders if Armaan’s background factored into his arrest. “I know they’re taking it very seriously, but is this thing what they do with a 12-year-old because his parents are not from here? My husband and I are from India,” Kaur said.

PAST CASE INVOLVED A MUSLIM STUDENT
The case comes three months after a 14-year-old Muslim boy of Pakistani descent was arrested at his high school in nearby Irving, another Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, after he brought a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a possible bomb. Ahmed Mohamed was detained but quickly released. His family questioned whether he was mistreated due to his religion and eventually left Irving after reporting threats.

POLICE DENY RELIGION PLAYED ANY ROLE
Police have rejected allegations that the boy’s Sikh religion played a part in his arrest.