Sikh boy jailed over ‘bomb joke’

Texas student spends three days in a juvenile detention centre over bomb remarks

A 12-year-old Sikh boy in the U.S. had to spend three days in a juvenile detention centre after he jokingly told a classmate that he had a bomb in his school bag, police have said.

Armaan Singh Sarai of Arlington, Texas, was locked up on December 11.

Arlington police Lt. Christopher Cook told the Dallas Morning News that officers went to Nichols Junior High School on Friday afternoon after a student told a teacher he’d heard Armaan saying he was “planning to blow up the school”, apparently saying his backpack contained a bomb and he was going to place it in a school toilet.

Classroom evacuated

After his classroom was evacuated and his backpack searched, the boy admitted he had mentioned a bomb but insisted that he was joking. He was, nevertheless, taken to the county’s juvenile detention centre.

“People have got to learn they cannot make these types of threats which cause alarm, which cause evacuations,” Mr. Cook said. “Just because you say it’s a joke, it doesn’t get you out of trouble.”

However, Armaan’s cousin Ginee Haer, said he was a victim of bullying that landed the boy in juvenile detention for three days.

In a Facebook post, Haer wrote: “On Friday, December 11th, 2015, my cousin attended school, like any other normal 12-year-old child. A bully in class thought it would be funny to accuse him of having a bomb, and so the principal, without any questioning, interrogation, or notification to his parents, called the police.

“Worried & frightened at home, his family was concerned as to why he had not reached home right after school. They started calling every police department in the area, only to find out he was sent to a juvenile facility. They kept him held behind bars for three consecutive days, before finally releasing him on Monday, December 15th.”