To hope these parents are ashamed of their boys tonight?

[Dilbertian]

Today my Y9 ds was taunted by boys making the Nazi salute at him. This, after a couple of weeks of 'Dirty Jew'.

If these are your sons, is this what you want for them? Is this the attitude you would like them to have to their fellow human beings? Do you feel proud of them? Would you like them to be treated this way? What are you saying to them tonight? What do you think the Head of Year should say to them tomorrow?

What do you think your sons should do next?

Or maybe - meh, it's just bantz, boys will be boys.

Anti Semitic. Sorry everyone.

Well, I am obviously naive of it. I really didn’t think there was antiseptics growing up there (outside of BNP/NF types)

You are naive I'm afraid. The first incident of Jew hate I received was in the 80s when I was a child walking to my (Jewish) school, said to me and my friends by a Jamaican man.

I am genuinely sorry to hear that, @backwardforward I really am. There is a blind spot with many of us I think where we know stuff is happening in our periphery but we don’t get the effect it has when it is a constant presence that you have to navigate around.

I hope that you and your family have lots of love around you - the kind that insulates you from the stings and hurts and builds you up so that you always feel that anti Semitism is someone else’s problem that they are projecting on to you.

I hope you had a peaceful Hannukah xxx

Awful. I'm so sorry. Definitely complain to the school this really isn't on, its racist and completely appalling.

My daughter experienced something similar. She is 16 and not straight(she isn't sure what groups she is fits into atm) and had to deal with being called names including faggot and other derogatory terms for weeks by local children (between the ages of 10 and 15)and being pushed into the road and followed etc.

The police were next to useless. They spoke to the kids families but because the families wouldn't agree to a community resolution order nothing got done.

So what is the point of there being hate crimes and laws if you are allowed to "opt out".

I hope the OP got better results from the school than we did from the police.

@DonnaQuixotedelaManchester
I do believe that something is fuelling this for a purpose and then different people from different groups are perpetuating the message

I think you're right there.

The message of hatred is falling on fertile ground though. There is something just below the surface that is being called forth.

Yes @maths but who, what and why I don’t know

It's not racism. It's anti-semitism and bigotry. Calling it racism, buys into the shit which the Nazis proposed in the late 1930s and allowed the othering of Jews in a more easy and systematic way. It would be really great if we could escape that bulllshit.

This needs to be escalated to the highest level. And immediately. But OP knows that and YANBU.I'm so sorry that your son is suffering such abuse.

My DC have told me that at one of their schools, some yr 7 boys go round doing nazi salutes and at the other school there are swastikas graffitid in the loos.
Sigh.
Yes, I will get in touch with the schools in January.

All the boys involved had 2 days internal exclusion, during which they had several hours of Holocaust education (videos to watch and written work to complete about what they had watched) as well as all the normal lesson work. I have seen the work they were set, and consider it a reasonably good choice. I have also received an unsolicited written apology from the parents.

There is more, but I don't want to get identifiably specific. The school's response has been robust. But it needs to be ongoing.

For the PP who said that it was not racism, and that to call it racism diminishes it, I both agree and disagree. Anti-semitism is both a specific racism and a separate prejudice. Jews don't all appear to be the same 'race'. In this case, the Nazi salutes were the result of ignorance, though the choice to tease/mock/bully someone because of his religion was both racist and anti-Semitic. Had these boys understand beforehand just what an appalling and grotesque behaviour they had chosen, would they have used it? That, I think, depends on whether they are genuine bullies or unthinking kids.

Ds has been bullied incessantly since Reception. He does not fit in to the crowd, and being Jewish is probably the least of the reasons why he does not fit in and why he is targeted by bullies.

Learning not to taunt someone for being Jewish is just the same as learning not to taint someone for being disabled, or gay, or different in any way.

Thinking it's ok to taunt someone for who or what they are is a gateway to racism and radicalisation.

@Helmetbymidnight

My DC have told me that at one of their schools, some yr 7 boys go round doing nazi salutes and at the other school there are swastikas graffitid in the loos. Sigh. Yes, I will get in touch with the schools in January.

They probably have no idea.

I do not agree with the way the Holocaust and other atrocities are taught. Ie not taught. By Year 9 the kids are already influenced, have already found out bits and pieces, but know nothing of the true horror. And only then, in the most rebellious year, are they taught about the Holocaust.

My children, as is quite common among Jewish families, are taught about the Holocaust from very early on. But by the time school introduces them to the Diary of Anne Frank or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, they already know the context and the ending.

I am astouned these things don't lead to permanent exlusion. We didn't even have jewish kids at school (as far as I know) and anything like this led to permanent exclusion. It's just not tolerated. Maybe they softened now too? I don't know....

@Dilbertian. I cannot imagine how difficult that must be (teaching your children about the Holocaust).

Maybe that is what we need to do regarding schools- bring in members of the community who wont shy away from the reality of it.

It's not racism. It's anti-semitism and bigotry. Calling it racism, buys into the shit which the Nazis proposed in the late 1930s and allowed the othering of Jews in a more easy and systematic way. It would be really great if we could escape that bulllshit.

Jew hatred is a form of racism. Jews were targetted by the Nazis regardless of whether they were religious or secular but because they were ethnically Jewish (defined by race). Even atheist Jews and those that had converted to Christianity were considered untermensch. Jews are targetted today because of their race, even if they are completely secular (as we are).

Not calling it racism, in this day and age, makes it look less severe than other forms of racism in my opinion, when the reality is that Jews get physically attacked and verbally assaulted (in public and online) on a daily basis.

Awful this is happening OP and agree on the education

Ours started learning about in year 6, so not all schools leaving it as late

There is an excellent Holocaust centre in north Nottinghamshire which I think as many schools as possible should visit. Ours went year 6 & 9

If anyone is within driving distance and when it is possible to go, please do

Rooting for your DS and hope what the school is doing will make a difference