San Jose State students were asking for accountability and change Thursday, after a student was the victim of a possible hate crime.
Students say they’re worried for their safety and the safety of their community at San Jose State University.
This comes after campus police say a Sikh student was attacked by a group of people on Saturday morning.
As investigators comb through surveillance video Hasmeet Kaur, the president of the school’s Sikh Collegiate Federation, says she saw cell phone video of the attack, taken by another student, and points out the attackers even misidentified the victim.
“And he was assaulted by 5 individuals who were calling him a Hindu and they physically assaulted him. They put him to the ground, and they took his turban off,” Kaur said.
The university also misidentified the victim when sending out a campus communication.
“We misidentified the student as Hindu instead of Sikh, the harm caused by that mistake is ours to own.” VP for Administration & Finance at SJSU Kathryn Kaoudis said.
The university says it’s working to add more cameras on campus, but in addition to demands for safety improvements, students say they want to educate the public.
One of the people at the town hall meeting was the victim’s brother, Harshdep Singh, who said town hall was useful.
“Bringing awareness to the student body and also keeping the police dept accountable, they could be doing a way better job than what they’re doing right now,” Singh said.
He says what happened to his brother was traumatic and he doesn’t want to see it happen to anyone else.
“To see someone that younger than I am, somebody I am supposed to protect, make sure they’re safe, that I couldn’t be there, help prevent this, the family feels down, but we’re making the best of it, we’re just happy he’s safe,” Singh said.
Meantime, police continue to investigate. “We’re still looking at surveillance video, we’re talking to different students and people who may have witnessed it,” SJSU police Chief Michael Carroll said.