Jewish students at a high school for the arts in Rome have allegedly been subjected to crudely antisemitic insults by an art teacher, leading to calls for disciplinary proceedings against the alleged offender, according to Italian media reports.
According to the OSA Collective — a left-wing student organization — the same teacher at the Enzo Rossi school made offensive comments to both Jewish and female students.
Addressing Jewish students, the teacher is alleged to have told them “You big noses should have been cremated” — a reference to the Nazi gas chambers.
Female students seen bending over to pick up pens and other objects were told, “This is how you provoke me,” by the teacher.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that on Wednesday, the school would hold a special assembly enabling students to recount their experiences with the teacher. Danilo Vicca, the director of the school, will be leading an investigation into the claims. Both parents and students said they had reported the harassment to the Regional Education Office to “no avail.”
The alleged victims point to a number of other recent incidents where teachers were disciplined for making bigoted comments to students as a precedent.