Armaan Singh Sarai, a 12-year-old boy from an American-Sikh family, was arrested by the Dallas police on December 11 and held in a juvenile detention centre for three consecutive days after he was accused by a bully classmate of carrying a bomb in his backpack to Nichols Junior High School in Arlington. Nichols’ principal Julie Harcrow, reportedly thought he was planning to blow up the school, and so without any “questioning, interrogation, or notification to his parents”, called the police who searched Armaan’s backpack and found nothing threatening. Despite the fact that there was no bomb and that Armaan had endured three open heart surgeries in the past, he was put behind bars “for making a bomb threat”, which is a felony. Neither the police nor the school informed Armaan’s parents where he was being held.
Armaan’s cousin, Ginee Haer, described his ordeal in a Facebook post that has since gone viral:
This goofball on the left in this picture is my 12 year old cousin, Armaan Singh Sarai. He was born and raised in Texas…
Posted by Ginee Haer on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
What was Armaan’s fault? Apparently, he and other students had been joking about bomb threats, yet Armaan was the only one arrested. In an email to Principal Harcrow, Armaan’s older brother, Aksh Singh wrote:
“My little brother Armaan Singh, 12 years of age, a loved kid by many was taken from school to Kimbo Juvenile center because he AND other students were joking about bomb threats. I know we live in a time where such an accusation is serious, but this is outrageous and I demand a justified reason for why a 12-year-old INDIAN boy was taken into police custody and sent to a jail.”
Everybody Please Share this about Nichols Junior High School in Arlington, Texas. My little brother was taken directly to a juvenile center for doing this. Please help stop the discrimination Nichols J H
Posted by Aksh D. Singh on Friday, December 11, 2015
Did Armaan’s joke warrant such harsh treatment?
Ridiculous, Texas. This 12 year old Sikh boy in US was jailed after a bully in school ‘joked’ he had a bomb https://t.co/HAP8sygRlm
— Indrani Basu (@IndraniBasu88) December 18, 2015
The police contest Haer’s and Singh’s version of events. Lieutenant Christopher Cook, an Arlington PD spokesman, told the Dallas Morning News:
“Armaan admitted to us that he mentioned a bomb, but insisted that he was only kidding. People have got to learn they cannot make these types of threats which cause alarm, which cause evacuations. Just because you say it’s a joke, it doesn’t get you out of trouble.”
In September, Ahmed Mohammed, a 14-year-old Muslim boy, was arrested in the neighboring city of Irving for bringing a homemade clock to school that a teacher thought was a bomb.
This Article (School In Texas Sends 12-Year-Old Sikh Boy Behind Bars – For NOT Carrying A Bomb) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
Texas is in the South. Whaddya expect?
Sikhs are pacifists. If you’re from Texas or the South, look up the word. “Pacifist”.
The family may not do it, but someone ought to be filing a civil rights lawsuit for this youngster that’ll pay for his healthcare and university for life.
So, is Anonymous going to do anything about this? I think that something has to be done
Schools webpage is already down.
Umhhh… he admitted to breaking the law… so we are to blame someone else other than him right???
At what point do we hold someone accountable for what they do instead of justifying it and crying foul when punished???
If you don’t want to be punished for anything, maybe you shouldn’t do anything that gets you punished…
He didn’t break the law you racist jackass, he admitted to mentioning a bomb jokingly!! So you arrest a 12 year old for 3 days without even notifying his parents?? Like if you’re an angel, i bet you’ve done worse things that would have gotten your ignorant ass arrested had you been caught..
Several points which you don’t seem to have read:
It wasn’t just this kid who was joking about bombs, he was just conveniently singled out and locked up without further questioning.
He may have admitted it, but if one of his friends who were also “breaking the law” as you put it, were questioned, they would have said the same thing.
You, have never been in jail before have you . they yell at you until you say you did some thing wrong and threaten you none stop by telling you your whole family will go to jail .
What the actual fuck… the terrorist hype is just getting worse and worse …
Those feel to me like pure bitches.
I think a setup and its another money grabbing scandal after people hearing about Ahmed Mohamed asking the school for 15 Million dollars..
I had a friend draw a bomb and jokingly wrote something about a threat. After we had a good laugh he balled it up and tossed it into the trash. The paper was then recovered and turned over to the school administration. Even though it was a joke and explained as such; he was arrested, suspended, and placed him in alternative school to finish the year. All this took place north of San Antonio 15 years ago.