Stefanie Schwartz, president of the board of Mount Sinai College, has continued giving evidence after the lunch break.
The independent Jewish day school was the subject of an antisemitic graffiti attack on January 30, 2025, the day before school started for the year.
She said it was clear the graffiti was intended to “intimidate children”. It couldn’t be covered immediately because the police were there and it was a crime scene.
An emotional Schwartz said she was “devastated for my own children” but also for “Aussie kids” who witnessed this, growing up in a world “where this is normal and this is happening”.
“It was very overwhelming to think about sending children to school the next day,” she said. “There were a number of families who kept their children home.”
Schwartz said she cut her own workday short to take her children home because she didn’t feel safe sending them on the bus.
She has now heard of parents being unwilling to send their children to Jewish schools because it was “risky”.
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