SYDNEY: A teacher in Australia has been slapped with a disciplinary warning and training by a civil tribunal after she described Indians as “Uber drivers and Deliveroo people” during a business studies class in 2021.
Acting upon a complaint by an Indian-origin former student, who attended James Anderson’s class, the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal has also asked the Department of Education to make an official apology to the pupil, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Anderson of Cronulla High School had played an educational YouTube video, which ran for over 20 minutes, for the class on March 3, 2021, featuring a presenter of Indian descent.
Anderson, according to the student, had mocked the presenter before saying “all Indians are Uber drivers and Deliveroo people, and their service is bad”.
Dissatisfied with the school principal’s response to the incident, the student and her parents approached and filed a complaint with the tribunal.
“As the video was playing, I saw Mr Anderson, while smiling, glance at me a few times and continue to mockingly giggle at the lady and her accent,” the student said during her evidence at the tribunal, according to The Herald.
“I was distressed and uncomfortable that Mr Anderson was looking at me during the video and mocked the Indian presenter, knowing that I am of Indian race. It was embarrassing and hurtful.”
The student also told the tribunal that Anderson continued to play the video despite another student in the class repeatedly asking for the video to be turned off.
Anderson denied mocking the presenter, but admitted his statements were “inappropriate” and “racial in nature”.
“At the time there was nothing in the nature of any reactions by the students in the class that day to cause me to think that one or more of the students was upset,” he told the tribunal.
Anderson remains at the school but received a disciplinary warning and training from the tribunal last week, which found the student’s complaint of racial vilification substantiated.
“We reject all forms of racism and are committed to the elimination of racial discrimination in NSW public schools,” a spokesman for the Department of Education told The Herald
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