Published: 19 September 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
In landmark case, five former students sued three staff from the government-run school. Court found staff had an “inexplicable and unusual tolerance” for antisemitic graffiti.
The state of Victoria must apologise and pay more than $430,000 in compensation after failing to protect five Jewish students from racial discrimination at a school in Melbourne’s south-east.
Justice Debbie Mortimer last week found the Racial Discrimination Act had been breached by the State of Victoria and the principal of Brighton Secondary College, who failed to properly address anti-Semitism between 2015 and 2020.
In a landmark case, five former students of Brighton Secondary College – Matt and Joel Kaplan, Liam Arnold-Levy, Guy Cohen and Zack Snelling – sued three staff from the government-run school and the state of Victoria for negligence and contraventions of the Racial Discrimination Act.
They said they were subjected to antisemitic taunts from other students, and that Nazi symbols were graffitied around the school.
Staff at the school had an “inexplicable and unusual tolerance” for antisemitic graffiti and failed to take complaints made by Jewish students and their families seriously, the federal court ruled.
Victorian education minister Natalie Hutchins released a statement on Thursday with an apology from the government, describing antisemitism and racism as "entirely abhorrent".
A government spokeswoman said Brighton Secondary College principal Richard Minack was "not currently at the school" but confirmed he had not been sacked or stood down.
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria welcomed the Chief Justice Mortimer's judgment. “Her judgement acknowledges that antisemitic bullying occurred at the school and there was a systemic failure to deal with it by school leadership. Jewish students are entitled, by law, to the same protection against vilification and discrimination as students from other minorities," said JCCV President Daniel Aghion.
