Fresno City Becomes First In US To Name School After A Sikh
India-West Staff Reporter
FRESNO, CA – Fresno’s Central Unified School District has made history by naming a new elementary school after a Sikh. The school board voted 6-1 on January 28 to name the new campus, located at Shields and Brawley avenues, Jaswant Singh Khalra Elementary. When it opens in August 2025, it will be the first public school in North America named after a person of Sikh descent, a media release said.
The district serves a large Punjabi Sikh community, with 1,700 students—10.55% of the total student population—identifying as Punjabi/Southeast Asian, according to The Fresno Bee. Punjabi students are expected to make up 9% of the new school’s enrollment, it added.
Jaswant Singh Khalra Elementary will be Central Unified’s 15th elementary school, with a capacity of over 600 students from preschool to sixth grade. The campus will include a multi-purpose building with an outdoor amphitheater, play courts, and modern baseball, softball, and soccer fields.
Calling the vote a “historic moment”, Central Unified School District Board of Trustees President Naindeep Singh Chann, in a statement said he was proud to support the naming alongside Trustees Nabil Kherfan, Yesenia Z. Carillo, Karla Kirk, Jaspreet Singh Sidhu, and Natalie Chavez.
Khalra was a bank director in Amritsar, who in the early 1990s dedicated himself to investigating the disappearances and extrajudicial killings by Punjab police. His daughter, Navkiran Kaur Khalra, is a Fresno State alumna who now works in the Bay Area. In 2017, Fresno honored Khalra’s legacy by naming a park after him, located about two miles from the new school.
Popular Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh took to Instagram to celebrate the recognition, calling the move “historic.” Dosanjh is set to bring Khalra’s story to the big screen in an upcoming biopic Punjab 95, where he will portray the late human rights activist who was abducted and murdered in 1995. It led to the conviction and sentencing of six Punjab police officials later. Punjab 95 is set for an international release on Feb. 7.
