Have Our Schools Become a Breeding Ground for Antisemitism?

A teacher's story: Swastikas in the playground, 'Heil Hitler' in the classroom and educators wearing Palestine badges

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

(This is an incredible guest post from a teacher friend about the growing problem of radicalisation in our classrooms. She has asked to remain anonymous.)

On my first lunch duty in a new school, I was utterly horrified to spot a large swastika emblazoned on one of the prominent walls in the playground. This was before the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which sparked a new wave of antisemitism across the educational sector, but it also serves to show us how we ended up where we are.

Even more disturbing than the graffiti was the response received when I approached one of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at the West London state school. ‘We’re aware of the graffiti; it’s been there for a month already. We’ll get round to painting over it when we can.’

I explained that leaving the symbol on the wall served to normalise its presence for the students. I also suggested that it would be much harder to re-educate the students than to remove the problem. The response was once again astonishing, as I was informed they would ‘get round to it’. They never did. I decided to leave the school after just one month.

So I am far from surprised we now have children praising Hitler in our classrooms.

I’ve been teaching for nearly 25 years. During a large amount of that time, I have selected to work as a supply teacher. I enjoy the variety, and it fits in with my lifestyle. Due to the nature of my work, I’ve taught all over London and some of the surrounding counties. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the years however, lately, it has been the ugly I have borne witness to in most educational settings I’ve stepped foot in.

Before October 7th, the ‘go-to’ phrase some students would overuse when they didn’t want to comply with an instruction was sadly to misuse the race card. A student who had been asked to stop talking or to focus on their work would immediately retort with the phrase, “Are you being racist, Miss / Sir?” Occasionally over the years, I have also had the phrase, “My father will put a fatwa on your head” shouted in my face, which, although it doesn’t really make sense, can be very intimidating. I have also had Arabic slurs and ‘Jihad’ shouted repeatedly and directly towards me, simply for asking students to focus on their work or to not disrupt the lesson with chatter between themselves.

After October 7th everything changed.

There was an immediate shift within school settings, which was nothing like what I had seen before. Students could be heard walking through corridors asking other students which side they were on: ‘Israel or Palestine?’ Many Jewish students started to look visibly intimidated, as did several others.

Just the other day, through the corridors, I heard a conversation between two male students, as follows:

‘He seems nice.’

‘Nah’.

‘Huh?’

‘He supports Israel.’

‘Oh. Okay.’

The following month after October 7th, I found myself working in an SEN school for high-functioning students with Emotional Behavioural Difficulties (EBD). During a lesson where I had been asked to cover a class for another teacher, a male student drew a swastika on a board and held it up towards my face. I asked the student if he understood what the symbol meant. He nodded and said, ‘Yes, Nazis killed Jews.’ I immediately called support from another teacher, sensing this could be a safeguarding issue. What followed was almost worse than the incident itself.

The teacher, who was approached to offer support, walked into the room and said in front of the entire class, “You’re overreacting. “ He’s just thinking of the history lesson he had earlier in the week.” Whilst it is not untypical for students with SEN to go over previous events in their minds, the student did not receive any further explanation or guidance as to why his behaviour was unacceptable. Filling up with emotion, I asked to be excused from the room and soon found myself in floods of tears. Another teacher, who had heard the entire situation, approached me in the corridors, surprisingly, not with words of comfort but with vitriol. Addressing me, she said words to the effect of: “My mother-in-law is Jewish. I’m so sick of hearing about the Jews and their suffering since October 7th.” I took myself straight off to the Deputy Head and imparted my very valid concerns, in relation to training staff on how to handle antisemitism within the school. The Head Teacher apologised profusely and said he would look into making these adjustments. I couldn’t help but wonder: why weren’t they already in place?

Another pressing issue in schools is the coercive behaviour which currently exists between students. This is raising issues which schools aren’t equipped to address. I had one parent approach me last year to confide that her eldest daughter (who attends another school) had been surrounded by a group of students and asked to recite a phrase in Arabic from the Quran to be sworn into the circle of friends. The student refused and was immediately ostracised by her previously known friendship group.

I recently had a group of three girls in a state school in North London verbally attack me in Arabic, once again, for simply asking them not to disrupt the lesson with their silly antics. The students threw accusations of racism towards me and shouted slurs such as ‘intifada’ and curses in Arabic. One male member of SLT, entered the space and immediately excused the students’ behaviour without any consequences. I felt bullied in my own classroom.

Thankfully, there were a number of well-behaved students in the class who backed me up and reported the behaviour of these students to senior management. It wasn’t until I marched myself into the Deputy Head’s office and informed her I would not be returning to the school that SLT eventually decided to place the three girls in question on immediate suspension.

Sadly, I have far too many of these stories to share. Working at a Summer Camp in the summer of 2024, a young boy visiting from Qatar drew an image of people being shot in the head. The images were very graphic. The boy stated that the people in the image were Jews. This was immediately followed up as a safeguarding concern and dealt with swiftly by the camp - but I couldn’t help but wonder: what would become of the boy?

The buzzword has changed. It is no longer on trend to call a teacher racist. Now students are mumbling words and phrases under their breath, such as ‘Heil Hitler’ or answering questions in fake, over-the-top German accents. One student went as far as presenting a Hitler salute in class, which, when questioned, he said he was merely stretching. Attaining evidence to follow up on behaviour with consequences is proving nigh impossible in the current climate.

The other trick students are carrying out is ‘teacher profiling’. They ask a series of surreptitious questions, with the intention of finding out if 1) the teacher is Jewish and 2) what side they are on. Questions might include comments such as: ‘Would you travel to Spain for a holiday?’ ‘Do you like Paul Weller?’ ‘What do you think of x, y and z?’ Just the other day, a student asked if I had a ‘Jewish nose’. I reported the comment immediately. We are now seven weeks later, and into the half-term, and after chasing this up repeatedly, I have still not received an apology from the student or seen any sanctions put in place.

And so here we are. We are now living through a time when this type of behaviour has become both normalised and accepted in educational settings. Students are no longer questioning; they are simply accepting the binary idea that Israel is evil and Palestine is good. The problem is deep-rooted. Young people no longer feel safe to debate or question this rhetoric - mostly out of the fear of losing friendship circles - and so the narrative is simply accepted as fact.

A large part of the problem lies with the educators themselves. I have been working at a college, where a number of the staff, from teachers, union reps, support staff and even student services, are continually wearing pro-Palestinian badges and lanyards on a daily basis. They are also continually pushing their political views on students. Teachers are legally required to remain neutral. This is grooming.

Even though I have reported these breaches on numerous occasions, nothing has changed. I eventually escalated the concern to the Jewish Board of Deputies, who have been in direct contact with one college, yet to date, there have been no notable changes. This behaviour amounts to indoctrination and not to the expected behaviour of an educator.

The only way forward, which will make any lasting change, is for staff to be held to account for their actions and for both students and staff alike to receive proper education in relation to all areas of antisemitism.

If educational settings can’t remain as safe spaces, with staff behaving in the expected manner, then I fear for the next generation and the safety of Jews in this country.