By Kevin Diakiw - Surrey North Delta Leader April 18, 2008

Thirty students at Princess Margaret Secondary School say they’ve been put on suspension notice after wearing contentious T-shirts to class.

The students wore black shirts with “Khalistan” written on the front, referring to the separatist area some Sikhs want carved out of the state of Punjab in India.

On the backs of the shirts is an image of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Sikh militant who took refuge in the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1982. The subsequent raid on the Golden Temple is seen as the reason for the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the bombing of Air India flight 182 in 1985 which killed all 329 people on board.

At least one of the Grade 11 teens sees no big deal with the shirts.

“At around nine o’clock they (school supervisors) yelled at me and said get into the office right now,” said one student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “When I got to the office, they tried to explain to me this is not a political school.”

He said the shirts had nothing to do with politics.

“It’s just our belief, it’s what’s been going on for the past couple hundred years or so right?” he said. “Our school thinks we’re discriminating against all other people, but we’re not.”

Surrey Board of Education chair Reni Masi said it’s unfortunate the T-shirts were worn at school, as they could be seen to condone violence.

“I would say we’re better off without it,” Masi said Friday.