Students from one of NSW’s top selective state schools have been accused of using derogatory language targeted at other students and parents from different cultural backgrounds.
Rachel Powell, who recently ended her tenure as principal of James Ruse Agricultural High, addressed a P&C meeting last week to address allegations of racism in the school.
James Ruse is considered one of the most prestigious state schools in NSW: located in the north-western Sydney suburb Carlingford, the high school was the top performer in HSC results for 27 consecutive years, before North Sydney Boys High School topped the state last year.
Speaking to parents in her final week as principal last week – as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald – Powell revealed incidents of targeted racism at South Asian students in the school, including the use of the N-word.
“Words have been used particularly targeting students of South Asian heritage, words that refer to the colour of their skin, words that associate them with particular animals, the N-word, which I hope you will know what that word is, and calling them slaves – that is absolutely intolerable,” Powell told parents at the meeting.
“Also, actually, the N-word is not just being used now towards people. It’s actually being used as an expletive.”
Powell said students are learning this behaviour online, and it is up to parents to educate and stamp it out.
Meanwhile, students at James Ruse have reportedly told Powell that some parents in the school have forbidden their children to be social with other students in the school, based on their “community background”.
“Students have told me that their parents won’t let them go to their friend’s houses because they’re from a different community background,” Powell told the parents at the meeting.
It’s not just students that are victims of racism within the school community. Powell said there have been reports of parents “targeted” with threats of physical parents. Some, she said, have been “frightened to volunteer at events and in the canteen”.
In a statement provided to The Sydney Morning Herald, a spokesperson from the Department of Education said there was just one incident of racist language recorded by the school in the last year, and action has been taken to provide counsel to the students involved.
In response to the threats targeted at parents, the spokesperson said they were not referred to police as there were only rumours of these incidents.
“James Ruse Agricultural High School does not tolerate racism and promotes a culture of inclusion at the school,” the spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“All our students are taught the importance of social justice and the need to behave with integrity.”
‘This is just the beginning.’
Every day, one in five Australian school students are victims of racism.
It’s even worse in the United States: according to government statistics, one in three high school students say they have experienced racism in school at some point in their life.
Some believe it will only get worse, now that Donald Trump – who has been explicit in his contempt of immigrants and non-white people – has been elected as the next president of the US.
Posting a video on TikTok, one woman, with the TikTok handle @jpaw1978, spoke about a conversation she had with her friend, who teaches at her son’s school, and his wife, who is also a teacher. She pleaded her son’s teacher to “keep your ears open in the hallways”.
This is heartbreaking. Fuck Trump and fuck every parent that voted for him. 😳👇 pic.twitter.com/HF0igQZN61
— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) November 11, 2024
“Because my son came home upset because he said that there are students that are going around calling Black students the N-word, but also calling them slaves,” the woman said. “They’re also saying racist things towards my son.
“And they’re also harassing little girls, saying ‘your body, my choice’.”
Sadly, the teacher wasn’t surprised: in fact, in the days after the election, he said seven students had already been suspended for such behaviour.
“These are sixth, seventh and eighth graders,” the woman in the video said. “And then his wife, (who) also works in schools… she’s hearing the same rhetoric from five and six year olds.”
The woman said that the recent election was never about the economy: rather, it was about “people’s hatred for people that don’t look like them”.
“Elections have consequences, people,” she said.
“And parents, you need to do the right thing and teach your kids that hate has no place in this world. And teach them how to defend themselves, and how to stand up for others, when they are being mistreated.
“This is just the beginning. It’s gonna get worse.”