Overview
- Parents allege some fasting students pressured classmates to fast or discard food, with reports of insults and gagging noises toward those who ate.
- Multiple outlets report a teacher told pupils to turn away or hide their lunches during Ramadan to avoid provoking fasting peers.
- In an Instagram statement, the Joseph-Beuys-Gesamtschule said its values are respect, tolerance and diversity, cited unclear communication, and reported no sign of a fundamental problem while promising further review.
- The Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf and North Rhine-Westphalia’s school ministry are in contact with the school to clarify the facts, stressing that no one may be compelled to practice religion at school.
- The mothers who publicized the case say the response is unsatisfactory, as an anti-bullying advocate calls the reported turn-away guidance discriminatory; prior class-council talks and an Iftar invitation frame the classroom context.