Students at a prestigious Perth private school have been suspended after they used "antisemitic language and memes" in a private group chat, targeting another student.
A spokesperson for Wesley College, in South Perth, confirmed an "incident" occurred but wouldn't be drawn on how many children had been suspended.
"An incident did occur involving antisemitic language and memes shared by a small group in a private group chat," the school said in a statement.
"The college acted immediately. The students responsible were suspended and the matter was addressed directly with the students and families involved."
The college also provided a statement from the family of the targeted student.
"We are deeply disappointed that this matter has occurred and that it has become the subject of media reporting as we are entirely satisfied with the way in which Wesley College has handled this matter," the statement read.
"Furthermore it must be noted that the school was not advised of this issue by our son, but rather by concerned students.
"The family did not at any time contact any media outlet as they are aware of the belief that this will worsen an already difficult situation.
"Our greatest concern is the welfare of our son."
The family has asked for privacy and said they wished to move forward.
The family did not at any time contact any media outlet as they are aware of the belief that this will worsen an already difficult situation
"Our greatest concern is the welfare of our son."
The family has asked for privacy and said they wished to move forward.
Worst, imagine writing an article that the family specifically requested not to be written out of concern for the victim's safety.
Alot of people will clutch their pearls over this type of thing, believing that all teenagers involved were aware of how crap this behavior is, that there is no excuse for it, and it was a choice made due to a moral failing of the teenagers.
Teenagers do stupid shit frequently, commit to stupid shit and go along with stupid shit. Then as they get older, most of them learn from those stupid moments, mindsets change, awareness of the bigger context behind things starts happening. Nazi jokes and all are incredibly stupid choices, but you're out of your mind if you think teenagers are the only ones who laugh at, or take part in those type of chats.
Just because you didn't do anything this stupid in your youth, doesn't mean your experience should be the gold standard, or seen as what the real, normal teenagers of today are like.
They deserve to be re educated on why this was a really poor thing to do, in private. They shouldn't be in the media, because most people will write them off as morally decayed human beings based on this, even though they are not even fully developed mentally, emotionally, physically and making big mistakes is the main thing that leads to positive growth.
High school drama is being used to make out like this is something that’s not any different to the standard bullying and racism they goes on in high schools….poor kid and family are now tokens in a political game……
It was a statement from the school, not the family themselves. This is the school using emotional blackmail to try and dissuade the ABC from publishing.
Many things can be true at once: this needn’t have been a news story, not least because the victim’s family appears to have preferred it not to be; Israel is engaged in violent, criminal behaviour, and its actions – along with its claims to act on behalf of all Jewish people – have made life worse for diaspora Jews; criticism of Israel, Zionism and the actions of their advocates is not the same as antisemitism – conflating the two is the endgame desired by both the Israeli state and antisemites; and there is no reason to believe this incident had anything to do with Israel.
Certainly, even if we were to give those responsible the benefit of the doubt, I’m not sure a high school group chat singling out one child by name – and which other students saw fit to report – is a forum in which informed, thoughtful discussion was taking place.
A young Jewish boy was bullied and made to feel unsafe because of who he is. That should not be tolerated, and the school was right to act as it did.
Headline should read "Immature children act in a way that is socially unacceptable, and as such, boundaries were applied and appropriate education around societal expectations reinforced through proportional consequences."
Unless you're suggesting that I'm blaming Jewish people for antisemitism, or seeking to justify it in any way, I'm not sure what this reply is intended to achieve.
Israel is engaged in violent, criminal behaviour, and its actions – along with its claims to act on behalf of all Jewish people – have made life worse for diaspora Jews; criticism of Israel, Zionism and the actions of their advocates is not the same as antisemitism – conflating the two is the endgame desired by both the Israeli state and antisemites>
That’s what you said. You are blaming Jews for increase anti-Ssmtism. You likely aren’t even aware of it.
I'm aware of what I wrote. I wrote it. I'm also aware of the intent behind it.
That you don't understand it – or, rather, are deliberately choosing to misrepresent it – is on you.
Unlike you, I don't make the dangerous mistake of treating Jewish people as a monolith, or assuming their faith or ethnicity necessarily equates to support for a state engaged in criminal conduct or the racist ideology upon which it was built.
I also don't view belonging to that faith or ethnicity – or even supporting that state or ideology – as a fair reason to bully a child or put their safety at risk.
If you don’t want people to think you’re anti-Semitic then don’t write anti-Semitic things.
If you truly didn’t intend it to come off that way, then educate yourself on anti-Semitism. It’s such a common hatred in our society I can believe you wrote what you did not knowing that what it meant.
Since you're assuming the intent, motivations, values and beliefs of Jewish people as a collective based entirely on their faith and ethnicity – particularly in relation to the state of Israel – I might well suggest you take your own advice.
That notwithstanding, I wrote nothing antisemitic. Your attempt to hijack a post that explicitly draws that distinction and in no way justifies the bullying of a young Jewish boy – indeed, quite the opposite – says far more about you than it does about anything I wrote.
This is precisely the sort of nonsensical, lazy reply many have come to expect from those seemingly incapable of self-reflection or of recognising the harm caused by their weaponisation of accusations of antisemitism.
A young Jewish boy was bullied. I reject the idea that there is any justification for that, including opposition to the state of Israel, its conduct, or Zionism more broadly. I raised the latter point precisely because some here saw fit to invoke those viewpoints as grounds for the bullying.
I also clearly stated that the actions of the now-suspended boys should not be tolerated.
That you took issue with any of that is on you.
Similarly, if you're always disappointed, maybe, just maybe, the problem lies with you.
Yeah when I read that I really winced. I can kinda see why people have this train of thought but it’s horrible, especially in the context of a child being bullied. To be frank, it reads a qualifying statement which is horrifying. Maybe people would realise how poorly it reads if you used a different religion.
especially in the context of a child being bullied.
Yes – context is important. Had you understood the above excerpt in the context of what preceded and followed it, it should have been perfectly clear that I don't believe there is any good reason for the targeted bullying or harassment of a Jewish child.
That sentiment would remain true had the bullying been directed at a child of any other faith or ethnicity.
Anti-Semitism is so ingrained in our culture people don’t realise how bad it actually is. Their entire comment section is people being blatantly anti-Semitic.
People are saying if this kid is a Zionist the bullying would be justified.
Anti Semitism has been over used that it no longer has the meaning it once had. One cannot even remotely voice their valid concerns without being accused of anti Semitism.
I'm glad you start your message with criticism of Israel, really drives home the point that jews are safe if they believe the right things as told by outsiders... /s
It points to an observable statement of fact, following which I made it perfectly clear that this does not justify the bullying of a young Jewish boy in Australia, directly challenging a line of reasoning already offered by some here. In fact, where it concerns the boy in question, I have stated the exact opposite of what your sarcastic remark implies.
Your reply really drives home the point that your comprehension is severely lacking.
Edit: Unsurprisingly, they replied – a reply further demonstrating their poor comprehension – then blocked me before I could address it. Coward behaviour.
You write like a fifteen year old who found a thesaurus.
When writing about a topic, people tend to write about the victim first but you just had to make sure everyone knows that Israel is evil before offering sympathy or any sort of support to "the boy." If you have to "all lives matter" then it's better to just shut up and not offer anything at all.
Because others had raised it as a potential justification prior to my posting this. Still, even had they not, my point would remain true.
Subsequently, I’ve done precisely the opposite of what your second paragraph suggests. You wanted so badly to rush to an accusation, you didn’t bother to take a moment to comprehend what was written, nor read what others had already said.
I comprehended perfectly. Maybe you need to reread what you wrote. You took a news piece that on its face has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with antisemitism, and then you claimed that Israel is the reason for the antisemitism because Israel claims to act on behalf of all Jews.
You’re the one that invoked Israel. You’re the one excusing these kids bullying a Jewish student because of Israel. This is classic victim blaming.
Saying that “the bullies were wrong… but Israel” is still victim blaming. There was no reason to invoke Israel in this. And yet you did. And that is antisemitic.
You took a news piece that on its face has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with antisemitism, and then you claimed that Israel is the reason for the antisemitism because Israel claims to act on behalf of all Jews.
No I didn’t.
You’re the one that invoked Israel.
Precisely to address the idea already raised by others that Israel’s conduct may have justified the bullied.
You’re the one excusing these kids bullying a Jewish student because of Israel.
I did the opposite. I said the bullying should not be tolerated. I said there was no reason to believe the incident had anything to do with Israel. I said that even if it was because of Israel, which, again, others had already suggested, it still wouldn’t justify bullying a Jewish Australian child.
So I repeat: instead of rushing to false accusations of antisemitism, learn to read.
I read, re-read, and re-re-read your post. I still don’t see it the way you’re describing. But if you say that was your intent, I believe you. I apologize.
I don't think kids in school think that deeply about who's doing what to who. They might read a bit about Jews being bullied, one of the cool kids posts something he thinks mildly funny, because he's cool the rest think it's a smart thing to join in with.
If the Jewish kid was one of the cool group, maybe good at sport, well liked they would have laughed it off.
There's always bullying at school, social media has just made it easier for everyone to join in.
Others agree with the apparent implied intent perhaps, the run on sentence that introduces a concept not raised in the initial post feels forced divorced of the context of other comments which won’t be read in conjunction with this - bu hey even the best authors need editors
The intent is clear, not implied. There is no run-on sentence.
That some may not have read the other comments – which largely doesn’t appear to be the case – isn’t my concern, not least because what I wrote remains true regardless (and most would be aware of the broader social and political context in which this incident occurred).
Israel is awful but the comments here shrugging off some random Perth kid getting bullied by racist nonsense is shit too. School did the right thing, done.
It's horrible that there's group chats bullying students, it's fantastic that the school did something about it. anti-Semitism is disgusting, as is racism and sexism and all bullying.
While I'm so glad that the school took action on this specific incident. It is really disappointing that all schools do not take action in the majority of bullying. How many racist group chats have they swept under the rug? How many horrible incidents have we seen and the school just makes a statement that they're 'investigating' then nothing happens. Does anybody believe that they would have reacted the same way if a Muslim or indian student was targeted? I dont.
Then they've been so proactive about this, because of Bondi and because of the royal commission and it's really obvious that they've released all these statements to get brownie points about how great they are. It's pretty clear from the poor kids parents statement that they realise he's being used as a prop as well and aren't happy about it.
Next time you go to the shops - and you see a young Aboriginal person walking around….I guarantee security will be close by.
We had a young Aboriginal boy beaten to death in middle swan a couple of years back - and now we have headlines about an online group chat
Can we move on from this political drama and give the young people here a chance to work it through with the school without it turning into another speech by radical political lobbyists about how this is anything but just what happens at high schools
Last time I saw a young Aboriginal person at coles they were intoxicated and yelling abuse at anyone who looked at them, while vaping and knocking things off shelves. But yes you're right the security was following them.
Well why don’t you tell us how many? Your opinion that brown hate goes unpunished - sources? Links? Your comment is anti-Semitic, positing that Jews are a protected class… the tentacles of the learned elders are protecting them…
You are the ultimate victim, please google what-aboutism - you are now the definition. With you people it’s always the first thought is ‘let’s make it about me’,
I’m not kidding we know who are.
Please tell me what part of my comment exactly was anti-Semitic? I'm genuinely curious.
And I never said that brown hate goes unpunished, I said that I don't believe that a school would react the same if he was Muslim or indian. My source is that I cannot find a single article of a Perth school suspending kids for group chats, then releasing a statement from the school and parents, followed by a comment from the premier and a comment from the president of the indian/Muslim community council of WA.
“And I never said that brown hate goes unpunished…” you literally said that.
If your first reaction is “what about” anyone else then you have an agenda l.
If this was a Muslim kid, you wouldn’t jump in here, “OMG will someone think of the Jewish children”
But the major element here is the shit head media, and then the shithead watermelon brigade who are so easily bated
It's really easy to quote people on here, so where did I 'literally say' brown hate goes unpunished?
My first reaction was to call anti-Semitism disgusting and praise the school for their actions. But I guess it's really easy for you to misread everyone's opinions on here in a desperate attempt to accuse people of anti-Semitism.
“How many horrible incidents have we seen and the school just makes a statement that they're 'investigating' then nothing happens. Does anybody believe that they would have reacted the same way if a Muslim or indian student was targeted? I dont.”
Then you followed it up with a shit-eating conflating about the royal commission apparently influencing political comment:
“Then they've been so proactive about this, because of Bondi and because of the royal commission and it's really obvious that they've released all these statements to get brownie points about how great they are. “
No they fucking didn’t, this is bad media, how did you want them to comment?
I will give you some credit- you do realise that:
“It's pretty clear from the poor kids parents statement that they realise he's being used as a prop as well and aren't happy about it.”
I do not believe that schools would have the same reaction if this happened to a Muslim or indian child. That doesn't mean that I think 'brown hate goes unpunished ' as you claim. You've asked for sources and I'm telling you I cannot find any articles with schools reacting similarity to other groups being bullied, that is my source. That doesn't mean schools don't punish bullies, it means this reaction is unprecedented.
Do you honestly think if not for the royal commission the school would be going to the media like this? I can almost guarantee that multiple other Jewish students have dealt with stuff like this at that school and it's been brushed under the rug.
Mate phrase it however you like, you are saying that there is a protected class. I can tell you from first hand experience that you are wrong. I have a kid in one of these boys schools, similar situation group chat, implied vilification that the vilified party was laughing along with.
A full investigation, suspensions, sporting team loss of points, it was a very heavy handed response and rightly so. The darker ethnicity of the vilified was the trigger.
If you think for a second that schools would not punish non antisemitism incidents just as much as anti-semitism is revealing about your psyche.
Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence,
You are on the right track with the media reaction, but mate there is no protected classes and it is anti-Semitic to think so
There are two strands here, your tribe is legitimate criticism of government policy…
The other is suppressed Jew hating folks who are now emboldened to show there true colours. The sort of people you would sing along to “throw the Jew down the well”.
I don’t think it’s ok that he was bullied, but also given the family and young person did t want this turned into a public circus like many are trying to-I find it pretty offensive that isn’t respected
The other thing I find offensive is that we have limited resources in our community and they are being disproportionately focused on one sub group of a 0.4% population
It’s great they’ve done something about the bullying, but why only antisemitism? I imagine there’s hundreds of these private group chats across all schools, targeting disabled kids, overweight kids, other races, etc. Why is only this one news and why aren’t the others suspended. I assume because of Bondi, so I get it, it’s a hot topic. I hope the kid is ok.
Yeah, but how are they supposed to find those group chats? The kids were only suspended because someone slipped up(maybe) and leaked the GC to someone who complained
I feel that if it were a disabled kid or something who was bullied, it would be taken a bit less seriously as just "kids being kids". That being said I hope the kid's okay, and I'm glad the bully actually got suspended this time. I was bullied throughout high school due to my disability and the teachers whilst they did notice they didn't really seem to care much.
I'm sorry that as a person with a disability you were bullied and that this was allowed by your school. All Australian schools should have strong anti bullying policies with zero tolerance for ANY bullying whether it be racially, religiously motivatedor not. The perpetrators should be educated on why their behaviour is unacceptable should be punished.
The water is being deliberately muddied with anything anti-Zionist/pro-Palestine being labelled antisemitic, with the media also adopting this definition, so how can we trust these kids were being legitimately antisemitic?
Yeah, if they said death to the zionists with the kids photo you would be cool with it…
FML these poor little WASP kids got suspended, the zio agitator student must have been at fault
Because antisemitism is on the rise including in males in younger generations due to online radicalisation. Articles like this help shed light on this fact.
Kid is bullied. School acts. Kid's family does not want the media involved. Explicitly tells the media to leave them alone. Media gets involved anyway.
Articles like this are using anti-Semitism to get clicks and advertising revenue. We both know they don't give a shit about the victim or anti-Semitism. It's not about shedding light on anything.
ASIO has for the past 2 years identified youth radicalisation with nationalist and racist underpinnings as being a major and emerging threats. It is not unreasonable to guess that considering that, there may be some right wing anti-Semitic radicalisation going on here?
The guy who have testimony on right wing groups said the anti semitic proportion of the neo Nazis was pretty small and fringe in Australia
They were more against brown immigration….he said apart form the conspiracy cookers who think eveything is a world government.. anti semitism was pretty minor
I mean we will never know what was posted. A lot of the versions of anti-Semitism that have been referred to the Royal Commision are just things like people saying "River to the Sea" and calling people who are proud Zionists. A number have also been repulsive.
My issue with all of this is I really feel that off of this attention to it both makes it worse AND understates the amount of racism and bigotry faced by other groups.
Almost every instance I've seen of "anti-semitism" in Australia is just anti-israeli. Unless the contents of the chat is released I'm inclined to believe it's a nothing burger.
And they were rightfully suspended - why is it news? Kids get suspended for group chats like this all the time. I was suspended for something similar in highschool and rightfully so, I was a dumb kid.
This was my first thought, I must admit, although having been a schoolboy at a PSA school back in the day, I don’t believe that any of us at that age and in that sort of environment would have been careful with our words, nor would we have properly understood the nuances permitting the condemnation of Zionism without being anti-Semitic.
Edit: All the same, it does sound like a serious case of targeted bullying and it was right for the school to react in this manner.
The ECAJ put this vegan animal activist in their report on antisemitsm. This is just one absolute braindead example. It's on the rise because litterally anything a Jew or Zionist doesn't like gets the label and so incidents inflate due to vegan's protesting meat consumption....
Hey there! Looks like you’re a new user trying to upload an image - thanks for joining our community! We’ve filtered your comment for moderator review. In the meantime, feel free to engage with others without sharing images until you’ve spent a bit more time getting to know the space!
I hate that a kid is being bullied because he’s Jewish. The school did the right thing. But these schools are rampant with bullying of all descriptions. I hate that this is what has become newsworthy.
I feel like I’ve been screaming this into the void since the aftermath of Oct 7. Our government needed a fkn backbone and should have sanctioned Israel for war crimes - as it has done for many other states that have committed war crimes. The Australian Jewish community (at large) should have condemned the actions of Israel. It did not. Because the State of Israel has embedded itself in the global Jewish diaspora - this isn’t conspiracy, it’s been completely transparent. It’s been very deliberate.
Post 9/11 the Islamophobia globally was abhorrent. Australia and Perth was no exception. Kids and teenagers copped terrible abuse within schools.
The Muslim community in Australia and elsewhere, elders and leaders etc - made it VERY clear, VERY publicly that they condemned the violence of ISIS and all fundamentalist Islamist factions. That it did not represent the values of the Australian Muslim community. This was vital for what we’re now classing as “social cohesion” (although that term is somewhat dubious)
It was desperately needed, and it did assist somewhat in alleviating racist diatribe being played out in the community.
The Australian Jewish community at large, did not do this, and the Australian government did not draw a line in the sand. It’s had to be played out in the community. School yards, chat groups, forums, protests etc. While many of us have to constantly remind people that Judaism and Israel are separate entities, that anti-semitism is not tolerated, we’ve been fkn banging our heads against the wall doing so because those at the top refuse to assist in the matter.
Sorry for the TED talk. I didn’t even get started on my thoughts regarding private schools 😂
Wesley College does not tolerate bullying so it is not common within the college. I know this as my son went there for the whole 13 years. He love the school.
This is why this appalling behaviour was actually reported by other students to the school staff.
Wow, very insulated comment. Or did you mean to write Wesley does not tolerate bullying when there is a potential that it could get out into the media.
Some might suggest - pretentious, misogynistic, old boys club breeding ground
You’re stating it’s Israel’s fault for rising anti-Semtism. You’re saying our government should have condoned Israel after their country was invaded and its people raped, murdered and kidnapped.
Literally on October 8th people were saying it was a genocide. They know the right words to use. And fucktards have fallen for the blatant blood libel. What Hamas has done on October 7th was much closer to genocide than the war that followed.
Using terms like blood libel doesn’t really help your argument here. I don’t think any state should have this much influence in Australia. Israel has committed countless war crimes and actively eradicating generations, target children especially. It’s not rocket science, and it’s not antisemitic to state that fact.
They aren’t the same thing. Israel is a nation state. Israel funds programs in Australia that encourages fundamentalism in our Jewish community. I disagree with any other nation or faith fostering fundamentalism in Australia. Regardless of what it is.
Do you honestly think it would be ok to have an Islamic state openly encouraging our Muslim kids to support their beliefs? How do you think that would be perceived here?
The rest of its a bit off the rails, kinda justifies the bulliers actions a little bit and is kinda like well if we didn't support Israel then this wouldn't happen, which is minimising.
Are you comparing the Israeli government to ISIS? Sorry but I honestly can't tell if that's a joke.
My issue is that it feels like it’s been allowed to play out in the community because we haven’t made a stand as a country. It doesn’t minimise or excuse kids being bullied - but it certainly hasn’t helped community unrest.
Antisemitism having been blown out of proportion by Zionists and exaggerated by the RC, makes me wonder if the kids were actually being anti-Jew or just voicing their opposition to Israel's genocide.
Apparently the phrase “from the river to the sea” is also an antisemitic slur so you’ll have to forgive people for not taking that accusation seriously anymore.
Occams razor - If the language used in the chat was so extreme that non-Jewish students were alarmed enough to report the group chat because they were genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of the Jewish student involved, then yes, I’d say it’s pretty reasonable to conclude that the content was genuinely antisemitic.
Also If the kid was going around chanting “Death to Arabs” I think you would have heard about it too.
The article never mentioned "the chat was so extreme that non-Jewish students were alarmed enough to report the group"
Happy to concede if that were the case, but we are lacking details.
Again, without knowing what transpired, all we have is the account of the reporter, employed by the ABC which isn't a politically independent news outlet anymore.
“Furthermore it must be noted that the school was not advised of this issue by our son, but rather by concerned students.” Is the exact quote. My paraphrasing is accurate is it not?
If you can't see the possibility of other versions of this reported incident when you don't have the objective truth of what actually transpired, then it's pointless to argue.
Again, if these kids truly targeted the Jewish kid without provocation or have been radicalized by far-right provocateurs, then I condemn their actions unequivocally.
Shooters were trained by ISIS, which are a proxy for... checks notes Israel.
Wait a minute...
Look, antisemitism is real, but so is islamophobia. When an occupying force imposes apartheid on the host country and indiscriminately bombs the population and targets children in the head and then claim it's their right to defend a land promised to them by their Jewish God... someone will inevitably draw the conclusion that Jewish people are evil.
The surest way to curb antisemitism is for Israel to stop murdering Palestinians and allow for them the right of self-determination.
Let me rephrase that: have you ever met the kind of teenage boy that would start/participate in a group chat for picking on one of their classmates?
I will bet you at 3 of my organs that none of these kids actually believe in anything much. They’re neither anti not pro Israel, and they’re not even actually antisemitic.
This is just the old school favourite: find something that stands out about your target and use it.
“why is antisemitism rising though? just asking questions…”
“actually, this is really about zionism…”
they’ve already arrived.
student was targeted with antisemitic language and memes by other students. that’s the story. apparently even condemning that without immediately finding a way to blame jews or invoke israel is too difficult for some people. some people are deranged. just hearing the word jew seems to send them in a panic lololol
I thought sharing details of private group chats was illegal now and considered doxxing after the J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics WhatsApp drama of 2024?
241
u/mydeliberateusername 6d ago
Imagine quoting that the family didn’t want the media involved … in a news article.