A gay Jewish teacher in Berlin has spoken out about enduring months of abuse, harassment, and threats from elementary school students, most of whom have a migration background, driving him into post-traumatic stress disorder and forcing him to take medical leave.
Oziel Inácio-Stech told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had been the target of persistent insults and threats after revealing to his pupils that he is married to a man. “I’m living in a nightmare,” he said. “I never expected to experience something like this in Germany.”
Inácio-Stech said he had long hesitated to come out to his students due to their family backgrounds. “The parents of many students are very religious and come from traditional cultures,” he explained. In fact, as Remix News has previously reported, more than 80 percent of students at some schools in Berlin are from a migration background and do not speak German at home.
Eventually, five years ago, just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he decided to speak openly about his marriage, a decision supported at the time by his colleagues and the teachers’ union GEW.
The backlash began almost immediately. One 12-year-old student shouted, “What, you’re gay? I’ll tell the whole school.” From there, the abuse spread quickly. In a fifth-grade class in May 2023, a student from a Lebanese family became verbally and physically aggressive. According to a statement by a colleague, the student made “jokes about homosexuals,” physically threatened Inácio-Stech, and insulted him in front of the class. “The class was out of control,” the colleague noted, and another teacher had to remove the student.
Inácio-Stech contacted the boy’s mother, who pleaded with him not to file a formal complaint, citing concerns over custody due to her separation. Though he agreed at the time, the same student returned just two weeks later to publicly hurl further insults in the schoolyard, calling him “disgusting” and “not a man” in front of hundreds of pupils.
In another incident, he was asked graphic questions about his sex life, including whether he is “the man or the woman” during sexual intercourse. “You’re sure to be the one to get fucked,” one foreign student quipped.
The harassment did not stop there. Students began spreading rumors, refusing to attend his lessons, and shouting through classroom doors that he was a “family disgrace” and “impure.” One student told him outright, “You gay, get out of here. Islam is the boss here.”
Inácio-Stech also recounted an incident where a pupil said Christians would soon be “destroyed.”
Other teachers at the school have reported similar difficulties. One described a rising influence of religious conservatism: “Islam is drawing wider and wider circles at our school,” she said. “We Germans are drowning here.” She also described a pupil telling her, “You can go, we don’t need you here.” Another staff member reported parents attempting to impose modesty rules on female teachers.
The school environment has left Inácio-Stech with panic attacks and in psychotherapeutic treatment. One former Israeli colleague reportedly left the school entirely after Muslim students boycotted his lessons due to his Jewish background.
Despite the constant attacks on his way of life, Inácio-Stech says he is resisting changing his political allegiance to the right. “I want to remain tolerant and not become an AfD voter now.”
In October last year, Remix News reported on another interview given by a longstanding teacher in a migrant-dominated school in Germany, where she described everyday life as “absolute hell.”
At our comprehensive school, 80 to 90 percent of the students had a migrant background. Many come from predominantly Islamic countries such as Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, but also from Russia and North Africa,” she told Focus magazine.
“When students insult us or want to offend, they usually do so in sexualized, fecal language,” she warned.
She told Focus that she was routinely insulted with incredibly brutal language, including students saying: “You old whore’s daughter,” “I’ll fuck your head,” “whore,” “slut,” “cunt,” and threats like “I’ll give you AIDS,” while others told her, “Shut up, you Jewish whore!”