Brighton Secondary students sue over claims of anti-Semitic bullying

A Brighton Secondary principal is at the centre of a lawsuit by students against the state government amid claims anti-Semitic bullying was tolerated on campus.

A public school principal is at the centre of a Jewish bullying lawsuit by five students against the Victorian government.

Anti-Semitic attitudes at Brighton Secondary flowed “from the top down”, where “multiple hundred” swastikas littered the campus and were tolerated, the Federal Court heard.

Barrister Adam Butt, for five former students suing the State of Victoria, said one Jewish pupil was held at knifepoint, another lured to a park by bullies posing as a girl and assaulted, and another called a “f--king Jew” in front of a teacher, in issues spanning eight years.

Mr Butt said his clients had experienced racial taunts, exclamations of “Heil Hitler” Nazi salutes, told by teachers to remove a Star of David necklace and kippah, and prevented from doing a class assignment on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Four out of five of my clients had to leave Brighton part-way between a school year because of the hostile environment ... they couldn’t stand it,” he said.

The five former students — brothers Joel and Matt Kaplan, Liam Arnold-Levy, Guy Cohen and Zack Snelling — are suing the Victorian government, school principal Richard Minack and teachers Paul Varney and Demi Flessa over claims of systemic racial bullying between 2013 to 2020.

Five Brighton Secondary students are suing the Victorian government, school principal Richard Minack and two teachers over claims of systemic racial bullying.

Mr Butt said the current principal was “causative” of the problems at the school, and gave speeches at assembly where he “endorsed his Nazi father as a good man”, which led to spikes in discriminatory behaviour.

“Anti-Semitic attitudes flow from the top down,” Mr Butt said.

He said the state would go to “great lengths” to minimise the issue and it’s impact on Jewish students by claiming there was just one allegedly offensive speech by the principal rather than three and refer to singular swastikas rather than “multiple hundreds”.

“It seems that what they want to suggest is a swastika is equivalent to a penis being written on a wall,” Mr Butt told the court.

“This is the nature of the case, that it is being downplayed and denied.”

But he referred to the hate symbol as being the “epitome of racial discrimination”, which struck “at the chord of their identities”.

Mr Arnold-Levy said swastikas — “a sign of hatred, of isolation and of death” — were “everywhere” at Brighton Secondary.

“Everywhere in the male bathroom, all over the cubicles, all over the mirror, in the classroom, on the tables, under the tables, on the chairs — they were everywhere,” he said.

His locker was defaced with the hate symbol and “Heil Hitler”, and hairs ripped from his head when pupils tore off his yarmulke.

Mr Arnold-Levy told the court students threw money at his feet, called him “f--king Jew”, told him to “burn in an oven” and defaced his books with the Star of David, and he made repeated complaints to the front office for the principal that were “never” followed up on.

“It felt humiliating that either I wasn’t taken seriously or they didn’t care what was going on,” he said.

The taunting was “almost every lesson” and “I felt beyond isolated”, he said.

The Federal Court heard that 36 students would give evidence, many of whome were in the middle of their all-important VCE studies, which was indicative there was “something serious going on”, according to Mr Butt.

Among issues to be heard was that the Brighton Secondary made “great efforts” to support students in other minority groups, namely LGBTIQ pupils, while the students suing their old school “felt they couldn’t be openly Jewish”.

Chris Young, QC, for the State of Victoria and the education staff, said they all denied the allegations made against them.

He said while the case was being run as one matter, there were allegations by five individual pupils that would each have to be tested.

Mr Young said the principal and other staff would tell the court about the steps they took in response to anti-Semitic behaviour.

The Victorian government announced last month it would criminalise the display of the swastika under landmark laws where offenders could face up to 12 months jail.

The hearing, before Justice Debra Mortimer, continues.