Schools in line to be sued for anti-Semitic bullying warn legal experts

Cairns schools are at risk of being slugged for significant sums for the racist bullying of their students, warns the lawyer who just successfully sued the Victorian Government.

Jewish students in Cairns said students are gathering around them in groups and saying “Hitler was right”.

The lawyers behind a watershed racial discrimination win for bullied Jewish school students have warned that schools in Cairns could be liable for big payouts if they don’t take proactive steps to stamp out anti-Semitism.

In September, the Federal Court ordered the state of Victoria to apologise and pay more than $430,000 in compensation to five Jewish students after the Federal Court found it failed to protect five Jewish students from racial discrimination at a school in Melbourne’s southeast.

The students sued the Victorian Government under the federal Racial Discrimination Act after they were found to be treated differently to other vulnerable minority groups and were forced to endure swastika graffiti, were kicked, spat on, and called “f---cking Jew.”

MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA – NewsWire Photos Photo of (L-R) Matt Kaplan with brother Joel Kaplan two of the students who received payouts for anti-Semitic bullying. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

This week the Cairns Post revealed Jewish students across mainly private schools in Cairns were being called “filthy jews” and were told “Hitler was a right”, in a spate of anti-Semitic school incidents since the Israel-Palestine conflict began on October 7.

Richard Hutchings led the successful litigation for bullied Jewish students in the landmark decision.

Richard Hutchings, partner of Cornwalls and Law who represented the students in the landmark case, said Cairns schools were at risk of being slugged for significant sums for the racist bullying of their students by other students.

“The (Victorian) case provides a good foundation for showing what all schools and institutions should do to prevent breaching the Racial Discrimination Act,” he said.

Mr Hutchings explained that in addition to failing to respond adequately to the complaints from students with appropriate discipline for the perpetrators, including contacting the police, Federal Court Chief Justice Debra Mortimer said found the school should have embarked on an education campaign about anti-Semitism in its curriculum.

“We took evidence from a retired school principal who said schools need to look at education around the Holocaust, around who are the Jewish people and the abhorrence of how they have been treated,” Mr Hutchings said.

Liam McMahon, managing director and founder of Enyo Lawyers, said schools have a “heightened moral duty,” and would be liable for injuries caused by bullying even if it still did not know about it but “ought to have known” about “foreseeable risks”.

Mr Hutchins also urged children impacted by bullying to make complaints and if the school doesn’t respond, to take the complaints “to the next step”.

Originally published as Schools in line to be sued for anti-Semitic bullying warn legal experts