The public school in Sydney’s southwest can forget about all that because it will be known across the country for the extraordinary protest held outside its school gates on Wednesday morning as activist teachers shamefully co-opted students to their cause.
The group Teachers and School Staff for Palestine organised the rally for 9am outside the school which is attended by 768 boys from mostly Arabic-speaking backgrounds and the Muslim faith.
This was no hastily arranged event. “Bring your parents and whoever you want to support the sheikh and raise awareness,’’ the group posted beforehand.
Late Wednesday a post on the group’s Facebook page encouraged a repeat effort at 9am Thursday to “stand up for” school support officer Sheik Wesam Charkawi, who was ordered by the NSW Education Department to work from home after he defended two Sydney nurses involved in a shocking anti-Semitic rant caught on video.
The sight of students in uniform joining in the “Allahu Akbar” chants of a large group of adults waving loud speakers and Palestinian flags outside a school won’t just chill the besieged Jewish community; it’s a wake-up call to the NSW government that activism in education is not limited to university campuses.
A recent Senate inquiry found brazen anti-Semitism had gone unchecked on university campuses. Imagine what it might have found if it looked into our high schools where young minds need to be opened, not closed?
Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin on Wednesday called out the “concerted attempt to indoctrinate children into a certain ideology”.
Children were being deployed as a political tool by activist teachers, he said.
It’s been happening for months and now there is irrefutable evidence in the videos of the protest proudly splashed across activist social media pages.
“You’ve seen children deployed as a political tool to advance an agenda.’’ Mr Ryvchin said.
Echoing the thoughts of parents everywhere he added: “These children should be in school’’.
The question for the NSW Education Department must now be: what are our children actually being taught in school?
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Granville Boys High School likes to talk of its values of equity, respect, safety and citizenship. It wants to be known for the national recognition it has received for its work within the community.