Race hate in the playground: Marches linked to surge in vile slurs against Muslim and Jewish students in Australian schools
Teachers are seeing a surge in sickening racist taunts after recent anti-immigration rallies – one group of white teens screamed “deport, deport, deport” at a Muslim classmate.
Teachers are reporting an alarming rise in racism on school campuses amid growing anti-immigration sentiment and activism among students.
It comes after rallies took place across Australia with some marchers expressing neo-Nazi and anti-immigration slogans and sentiments.
One Australian educator this week reported seeing four white teenage boys ganging up on a Muslim student, yelling “deport, deport, deport” and “go back to your own country”.
The teacher said: “They were absolutely unstoppable, it was to the point the Muslim boy started crying and I escorted him away in a classroom to calm down.”
“The kids saying racist things just wouldn’t stop or listen, even though three different teachers were telling them to stop. They ended up going to the principal’s office in the end and having their parents emailed/called about risk of suspension if it happens again,” the teacher wrote.
“I’m really sad and shocked that this happened ... social media is influencing horrible things right now.”
Right-wing influencers peddling xenophobia and racism are increasingly gaining traction among teenagers – especially young white men – on social media.
According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, 89 per cent of young people aged 13-17 have either experienced or witnessed racism. Racism most commonly happens at school (43 per cent) or online (33 per cent).
Other teachers responded this week to the first teacher’s post, with one mentioning a child who was “doing a Sieg Heil and finger moustache to his mates” and said it “happens at least once a week”.
“Last term I had a day where I had five sessions with classes from the same school and four of them got kicked out within five minutes for the exact same sh*t,” the teacher said.
■ MOST READ: Teachers who faced disciplinary action revealed
Another said they heard a group of girls “trying to explain how Hitler did nothing wrong, which was promptly argued against by the class’s least-well-behaved kid”.
“I don’t understand how it’s entirely possible for kids to come to the conclusion that the Nazis were somehow in the right. We seem to have done some backwards sliding somewhere.”
Another teacher said they taught a “17-year-old girl who arrived from China three months ago talking to me about how she was frightened by the march”.
A further teacher said: “Last year there was a six week or so stretch of incidents with a student saying all sorts of sh*t to indigenous kids. Like they wished it was over 200 years ago so they could just shoot them ... or that they should be enslaved.”
And another said that “every single day within the first five minutes I’ll be pulling someone up for saying something racist. This is the best job I’ve ever had. I’m still thinking of looking for other work because I’m just so over it.”
Dr Aaron Teo from the University of Southern Queensland said schools need to encourage students to be “anti-racist” – not just passively against racism, but proactive in tackling racial injustice.
“There needs to be a holistic review of policies and practises within schools – whether to do with funding, discipline, or dealing with instances of interpersonal racism – as well as comprehensive anti-racism training for school staff including leadership,” Dr Teo said.
“What we need here is a nationally consistent focus on anti-racism that’s an integral part of the curriculum and not just a tokenistic add-on.
“(Anti-racism training) will equip educators to identify, prevent and manage racism, and importantly, give them the tools to facilitate discussions about its harmful effects ... if school leadership isn’t on board, it just ends up isolating teachers and exacerbating the problem.”
