Backlash at Nazi symbol at Toorak Primary School: ‘We must reject these disgusting acts and the genocidal agenda they represent’

Graffiti discovered at Toorak Primary School has prompted anger at the “desecration of a place where children play and learn”.

A swastika drawn on the ground at Toorak Primary School. Picture: Supplied

School kids have been exposed to “ugly and abhorrent” anti-Semitism, a civil-rights group says, after swastika graffiti was discovered at a primary school in Melbourne’s inner east.

A Jewish woman discovered the Nazi symbol on a basketball court at Toorak Primary School on Wednesday.

It is unclear who etched the graffiti onto the court.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said the display was another example of “unbridled hate” directed towards the Jewish community.

“To desecrate a place where children play and learn with neo-Nazi vandalism is ugly and abhorrent, and I hope that those individuals who perpetrated this sickening outrage are identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the new law that bans the public displays of the Nazi swastika,” Dr Abramovich said.

“This cowardly vandalism is a frontal attack on the core values and spirit of schools, a haven where students, family and staff of all ethnic and religious backgrounds are welcomed.

“This open and public declaration of racial hatred is not just a threat to Jewish people but is a real threat to everyone, and collectively, we must reject these disgusting acts and the genocidal agenda they represent.

“Melbourne is a city of strength and pluralism and unity, and we will fight back against this filth which is invading our neighbourhoods.”

The graffiti has been reported to police and has been removed from the court.

A Department of Education spokesman said it took a “zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism”.

It is mandatory for all public schools to teach year 9 and 10 students about the Holocaust under the state government’s history curriculum.

It comes six months after new bans on public displays of hate symbols passed state parliament in an Australian first.

From the middle of this year, it will become illegal to publicly display symbols such as the swastika, or the Hakenkreuz, making Victoria the first jurisdiction to introduce the ban.

People who depict these symbols in public will risk up to 12 months in jail and a $22,000 fine.

In October, a student at St Bernard’s College in Essendon wrote “f*** the Jews” in school work submitted to a teacher with Jewish heritage.

A teacher also filed an official complaint after students wore art smocks covered in swastikas around campus.

Five students at Brighton Secondary College launched legal action against the principal and the state government in June over alleged anti-Semitic attitudes and the display of “multiple hundreds” of swastikas on school grounds.

Meanwhile, a student from another school was believed to have aimed a Nazi salute at a group of Mount Scopus students in June.

Toorak Primary school has been contacted for comment.