Bullying in German schools in Berlin’s heavily migrant populated areas has increased drastically with pupils claiming that they are threatened and beaten simply because they are German, and not Muslim.
Teachers in schools across Berlin are voicing concern over bullying from migrant-background Muslim children towards German children who can find themselves in a minority. According to one 7th grader in Berlin’s Schöneberg district, many Muslim migrant-background children bully and beat him simply for being German, Tagesspiegel reports.
In an interview with the newspaper, the unnamed pupil said: “I’m in seventh grade in a high school in Schöneberg. There, I am marginalised because I am German and eat pork. They swear in Turkish and Arabic about me.”
“In German, I am insulted as a son of a bitch or a fucked whore. In addition, I am sometimes beaten and kicked. If I get too close to other boys, they call me gay and kick me,” he added.
“Girls in my class are called sluts when they wear strapless shirts. I’ve been trying to change school for many months but can not find a free place to go to school. The school office and the school do not help me,” he said.
As a result of bullying, many teachers in Berlin have spoken out including Hildegard Greif-Gross, director of the Peter Petersen Elementary School in Neukölln, who said that young pupils can be bullied for as little as bringing a ham sandwich to school as part of their packed lunch.
Jewish pupils have also been singled out by bullies in diverse areas. In one case in May of last year, a Jewish pupil in Berlin was forced to change schools because of constant bullying and threats that eventually led to him being beaten by other pupils.
The 14-year-old, whose parents had moved to Berlin from the UK, put their son in a diverse school which he initially enjoyed until his fellow pupils found out he was Jewish.
Earlier this week, yet another anti-Semitic attack occurred when a teenager wearing a kippah filmed himself being violently attacked by a Muslim who whipped him with a belt while yelling “Jew!” in Arabic.