A School Board, Two Students and A Policy Change - Advocacy at its Best
How two Hindu high school students took a simple presentation to a Maryland school board, and changed the conversation on the sacred Swastika
When we think about driving policy change, we usually imagine work done at the highest levels of government—in our capitol buildings, in meetings with senior policymakers, while poring over reams of paperwork prepared by a battery of lawyers, all of it handled by serious men and women.
But at CoHNA we have always known that there is more to that story. That advocacy actually starts at the town hall and goes through the school board; that high profile meetings with senators and congressmen are first made possible by casual conversations in community centers, temple halls, and school auditoriums; and that behind every seasoned advocate in a senate hearing room is a younger version of themselves, making a PowerPoint presentation at school board podium, powered by an unshakeable conviction one couldn’t shake.
Priya Bakshi and Saisha Vyas are that younger version. And thanks to their fearlessness, they got a Maryland school board to begin rewriting its policies on a subject close to every Hindu heart: the misrepresentation of our sacred Swastika in public discourse. On February 26, 2026, the two high schoolers stood before the Howard County Public School System Board of Education and made their case for why the conflation of the sacred Swastika with the Nazi Hakenkreuz was historically inaccurate and harmful to Hindu families navigating American public life every single day.
Their testimony had a direct impact. Following their presentation, the Board committed to reviewing its policies and documentation to ensure the symbol is referenced accurately and understood in its proper cultural context. In a follow-up communication, a Board representative acknowledged that while many were aware of the Nazi symbol and its conflation with the Swastika, the full historical context was not widely understood—and that the presentation left “no excuse for not knowing.” The Board has since tasked its Policy Committee and staff with reviewing all relevant references accordingly.
Having made their case to an institution, Priya and Saisha returned to where it all begins— their own community.
On March 15, they brought that same presentation to a Vaishnav Temple event held at Sherwood Elementary School in Sandy Spring, Maryland. This time, they were joined by their fathers, and together they shared not just the backstory of how the Swastika came to be conflated with the Hakenkreuz but also their own experience of it—what it actually feels like, as a Hindu family in America, to watch their sacred symbol be misunderstood, misrepresented, and mishandled. And, equally importantly, what it feels like to finally be able to do something about it.
For Priya’s father, that journey started with CoHNA. “I made it a point to speak from a very personal perspective,” he said, “on how working with CoHNA has positively affected me, my family, and our understanding of our Sanatana Dharma.” He also encouraged the audience to consider volunteering with CoHNA so as to experience that same journey for themselves.
A highlight of the evening was screening the video of Priya and Saisha’s original HCPSS testimony—the very presentation that had moved a school board to act. “That video really resonated with everyone in the room,” Priya’s father noted. “They got to see the work CoHNA does in real life.” For an audience of Hindu families who have spent years in the diaspora watching their sacred symbol be misrepresented, watching two young girls from their own community stand before an institution and come away with a policy commitment was proof of something they had only dared to imagine—that their voices, deployed with knowledge and confidence, could move things.
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And that is precisely the model CoHNA has always believed in: youth-led grassroots advocacy, supported by family and community, translating into tangible policy action. It is a reminder that the path to change runs through our communities, and that it is often built by our youngest members, with the support of those around them.