TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian Sikh boy has been found not guilty of assault using his kirpan, a ceremonial dagger, in a schoolyard spat.

But the 13-year-old from suburban Montreal, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was found guilty April 15 of using a hairpin in the fight with two classmates. The boy was given an absolute discharge, however, meaning he will have no criminal record.

The incident was sparked last September when the boy and two of his friends told the two alleged victims to stop following them during a lunch break. The victims alleged that the Sikh boy assaulted them by threatening them with the hairpin. One of them said he was poked with the kirpan, which was wrapped in a cloth and worn under the clothes.

The accused boy was acquitted on two other charges of assault with his hairpin and kirpan. Sikh men consider turbans and the kirpan sacred articles of faith. The hairpin is used to tuck the uncut hair into the turban.

The judge found that nationality played a role in the case.

“If the three boys had the same nationality, and the same faith, this case would not have ended up before the court,” youth court judge Gilles Ouellet said.

The judge added that there was “technically” enough evidence to convict on the single assault charge involving the hairpin, but he said he gave the unconditional discharge because it is time for everyone involved to move on.

The issue of kirpans in schools in a long-simmering one in Quebec. After a drawn-out legal battle, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that it was wrong to bar a Sikh boy in Montreal from wearing his kirpan to school.