Jewish, Muslim and Christian students are being picked on, discriminated against, excluded and harassed for their faith in Victorian schools, a worrying new study has found.
Religious bullying is rife in Victorian schools, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian students picked on, discriminated against, excluded and harassed for their faith.
A new study has found with Jewish kids are given the Nazi salute in the playground, Muslim boys are asked if they are terrorists and Hindus are asked if they have child marriages.
The research, based on interviews with 58 students, teachers and parents, was conducted by Sydney University emerita professor Suzanne Rutland, and Professor Zehavit Gross from Bar Ilan University in Israel.
They concluded there is “clearly pervasive racism and religious discrimination against minority groups in Australian schools that needs to be countered”.
The study found teachers and principals are often ill-equipped to deal with religious bullying, and either downplay it or deny it. Parents often urge their children to ignore it.
Both Muslim and Jewish students received death threats from other students. The report details a school in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs currently disciplining several students for directing “Heil Hitler salutes” at Jewish students.
Other Jewish children were told to pick up a coin from the ground, given scissors and asked if they want a circumcision and told things like “Hitler should have killed you all” and “We’re going to put you into the oven again”.
Read the article by Susie O’Brien in the Herald Sun.