Naming of new Fresno school makes history. The story behind Jaswant Singh Khalra Elementary
Fresno’s Central Unified School District made history in naming a new elementary school after a Sikh human rights activist.
The west Fresno district’s school board voted, 6-0 with Trustee Joshua Sellers abstaining, Tuesday to name a new elementary school being built at Shields and Brawley avenues after Jaswant Singh Khalra, who gained global recognition for investigating 25,000 illegal killings involving the Punjab police.
When it opens in August, Jaswant Singh Khalra Elementary will be the first public school in North America to be named after a person of Sikh descent.
Naindeep Singh, president of the Central Unified school board, lives near the site of the new elementary school and said his neighbors told him of Khalra’s importance to the community. The city of Fresno also named a park two miles from the school after Khalra in 2017.
A bank director in Amritsar, Punjab in the early 1990s, Khalra noticed that some of his colleagues stopped showing up for work. He investigated their disappearances and documented 25,000 cases of illegal murders and cremations by Punjab police. Despite sensing his life was in danger, he continued the investigation.
“I will challenge the darkness, even if I am just that one candle, that one light,” Khalra said in one of his last speeches.
Khalra died in 1995 after he was abducted by Punjab police in front of his house while washing his car.
Khalra’s family has ties to Fresno. His daughter, Navkiran Kaur Khalra, is a Fresno State alumna who now works in the Bay Area. Her husband’s family is from the Central Valley.
“For me and for many of our South Asian community members, he’s absolutely a person of admiration, because (his life) is a story of loyalty and friendship, integrity, courage and principle,” Singh said. “His daughter attended Fresno State, his family resides in our district, and probably thousands of our families here in the Fresno area were able to seek refugee asylum because of his work.”
Singh said naming the new school after Khalra represents the district’s mission of embracing diversity and empowering youth.
There are roughly 1,700 current students in the district who identify as Punjabi/Southeast Asian, or 10.55% of the student population, said Central Unified spokesperson Johnathon Burrows. The district estimates Punjabi students will make up 9% of the new elementary school’s enrollment.
Punjabi community members said naming the school after Khalra marked a historic moment.
“I think it’s the rich diversity that makes Fresno so special, and for the Sikh community, this is one more step in feeling Fresno like home,” said Nav Gurm, a community advocate running for a seat on the Fresno City Council.
Jaswant Singh Khalra Elementary will become the 15th elementary campus in Central Unified. The school will have a capacity of more than 600 students from preschool to sixth grade.
The campus will include a multi-purpose building with an outdoor amphitheater, asphalt play court, and modern baseball, softball and soccer playfields, according to the district.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
