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NAZIS

Headteacher in trouble for shouting ‘Sieg Heil’

A German headteacher who shouted the Nazi greeting “Sieg Heil” to pupils at the start of her school's annual mini car race is now at the centre of an investigation by Bavarian authorities. She said she blurted it out by accident.

Headteacher in trouble for shouting 'Sieg Heil'
The school in Weißenburg, Bavaria. Photo: Screenshot, Realschule Weißenburg

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Seventh and eighth-graders at the state high school in Weißenburg, Bavaria, poured their efforts into making little wagons for last Friday's annual race – but the competition turned sour when their headteacher bellowed “Sieg Heil” at the start of the competition.

The phrase, which was used widely by the Nazis as a greeting, caused instant upset among the youngsters, onlooking parents and teachers in the school's main hall, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

“I'm a bit politically immature,” the headteacher told the paper. “It just came out and now unfortunately I can't take it back.” She added that she was ready to talk about it with pupils and parents if necessary.

On Monday the Bavarian Culture Ministry said they were investigating her outburst.

Saying “Sieg Heil”, with or without the right arm salute, is illegal in Germany – with a few exceptions.

The 43-year-old has been headteacher of the Weißenburg school since 2012. Her staff expressed shock and anger after Friday's events.

“How am I supposed to plausibly stop my pupils from using Nazi slogans when our boss is leading the way in them,” one teacher told the Süddeutsche.

He added that the headteacher’s behaviour was totally unacceptable for someone in her position.

At the end of February a football fan was banned by his club, Borussia Dortmund, for three years for shouting “Sieg Heil” during a minute’s silence before a game. 

SEE ALSO: Blog outing online racists causes a stir

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DISCRIMINATION

Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

Parents with Arabic-sounding names get a less friendly response and less help when choosing schools in Sweden, according to a new study from the University of Uppsala.

Schools in Sweden discriminate against parents with Arabic names: study

In one of the largest discrimination experiments ever carried out in the country, 3,430 primary schools were contacted via email by a false parent who wanted to know more about the school. The parent left information about their name and profession.

In the email, the false parent stated that they were interested in placing their child at the school, and questions were asked about the school’s profile, queue length, and how the application process worked. The parent was either low-educated (nursing assistant) or highly educated (dentist). Some parents gave Swedish names and others gave “Arabic-sounding” names.

The report’s author, Jonas Larsson Taghizadeh said that the study had demonstrated “relatively large and statistically significant negative effects” for the fictional Arabic parents. 

“Our results show that responses to emails signed with Arabic names from school principals are less friendly, are less likely to indicate that there are open slots, and are less likely to contain positive information about the school,” he told The Local. 

READ ALSO: Men with foreign names face job discrimination in Sweden: study

The email responses received by the fictional Arabic parents were rated five percent less friendly than those received by the fictional Swedish parents, schools were 3.2 percentage points less likely to tell Arabic parents that there were open slots at the school, and were 3.9 percentage points less likely to include positive information about the municipality or the school. 

There was no statistically significant difference in the response rate and number of questions answered by schools to Swedish or Arabic-sounding parents. 

Taghizadeh said that there was more discrimination against those with a low social-economic status job than against those with an Arabic name, with the worst affected group being those who combined the two. 

“For socioeconomic discrimination, the results are similar, however, here the discrimination effects are somewhat larger,” he told The Local. 

Having a high economic status profession tended to cancel out the negative effects of having an Arabic name. 

“The discrimination effects are substantially important, as they could potentially indirectly influence parents’ school choice decision,” Taghizadeh said.

Investigating socioeconomic discrimination is also important in itself, as discrimination is seldom studied and as explicit discrimination legislation that bans class-based discrimination is rare in Western countries including Sweden, in contrast to laws against ethnic discrimination.” 

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