REALITY TV
TV
MOVIES
MUSIC
CELEBRITY
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Accuracy & Fairness Corrections & Clarifications Ethics Code Your Ad Choices
© MEAWW All rights reserved
MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

12-year-old Jewish student forced to kiss Muslim boy's shoes after being bullied by classmates outside school

A group of nine children reportedly forced the 12-year-old to perform the humiliating act in order to avoid getting beaten up by them
UPDATED MAR 13, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

A 12-year-old Jewish schoolboy was reportedly forced to kiss the shoe of a Muslim student in Melbourne, Australia.

A group of nine children reportedly forced the 12-year-old to perform the humiliating act in order to avoid getting beaten up by them. It is not yet clear whether the Muslim boy was also forced to be involved in the incident.

A disturbing picture of the incident circulating on social media shows the child on his knees as he kisses the shoe of another boy standing in front of him in a park in Melbourne. The group, consisting of 12- and 13-year-olds, have reportedly escaped disciplinary action, according to The Age.

In another similar instance of anti-Semitic abuse in a school in Melbourne, a five-year-old boy was called a "Jewish cockroach" and "dirty Jew" by his classmates who allegedly mocked his circumcised penis and bullied to him to an extent that he wet himself.

Reports state that the distraught parents of both the children, in separate cases, withdrew them from their class and slammed the senior staff for "refusing to address" the issues. 

Shortly after the picture of the 12-year-old Jewish child began doing the rounds on social media, his mother approached the parents of the Muslim boy who were reportedly horrified by what had occurred.

"We sat down, his parents, the two boys and myself, around the table and explained the velocity of [the bullying] and what it meant to us as parents as far as building bridges between Jews and Muslims in society and not creating division like that photo does," the boy's mother said. She added that the school has denied responsibility for the incident because it did not occur on the school grounds.

"I took such offense with the Education Department because there was nothing they did to protect my son at all, at any point in time... That's what's cut me up," she told the outlet.

The mother, who has not been identified, also revealed how heartbroken she was after finding out what her son had gone through. "He literally fell down on the floor and said, 'Mummy, you shouldn't love me. I'm a worthless, Jewish rodent. I'm vermin'," she told the Australian Jewish News

She added that the most disturbing aspect of the abuse was that the insults used at her son mirrored the anti-Semitic language of the Holocaust. "The words 'dirty Jew' and 'Jewish cockroach', they are such cliches."

The school released a statement after the incident, saying: "While school staff were not able to substantiate that any negative interactions were anti-Semitic in nature, on the basis of those investigations, school staff identified an incident that involved children laughing at [the boy]. This was not acceptable and would have been an unpleasant experience for [the boy]. I am sorry that this occurred."

Both the incidents, which occurred this year, have resulted in Australia's Anti-Defamation Commission to call it a "rapidly spreading" crisis linked to anti-Semitic bullying in state schools across the region.

POPULAR ON MEAWW
MORE ON MEAWW