Normalized culture of antisemitism at high school in Melbourne, Australia

The Lawfare Project is proud to support a lawsuit filed by five Jewish students in the Australian State of Victoria against the Brighton Secondary College in Melbourne. The students assert that they were subjected to a significant number of violations of Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act 1975 between 2013 and 2020.

The students show in their suit that the school had a failed system of education and discipline with respect to Jewish issues and concerns. This resulted in a normalized culture of antisemitism, where racist actions of students and school authorities went entirely unpunished.

In September 2023, in a sweeping victory, the Federal Court of Australia ruled in favor of the former students and ordered nearly AUD $436,000 in damages and $130,000 for costs to be paid, as well as an apology by the State of Victoria.

In her ruling, Chief Justice Debra Mortimer found that there were "unusually high levels of swastika graffiti" at the school and that frequent complaints were made about swastikas, antisemitic bullying, and harassment, but these were not adequately addressed. The Court also found that:

• the school's principal contravened section 9 of the Racial Discrimination Act by "failing to take appropriate and reasonable steps to discourage and modify the antisemitic student bullying and harassment behavior, and to discourage swastika graffiti, including by imposing appropriate disciplinary consequences but also by more systemic approaches such as school-wide campaigns," and

• there was an "inexplicable and unusual tolerance for antisemitic graffiti and a preparedness to ignore, downplay and take less seriously the complaints made by Jewish students and their families."