It had been simmering for months, say students, and this is the moment school racism reached boiling point.
A brawl that erupted between a student's relatives and police was the culmination of an R-rated slanging match on Facebook between "Leb" and "Aussie" students.
While education officials denied yesterday there was any ongoing violence at Hoxton Park High School in Hinchinbrook, south west Sydney, parents and students said tensions between students had escalated in the past few years.
A 14-year-old student said that she was "jumped" on Wednesday afternoon by "10 Australian girls" who punched, kicked, scratched and spat at her.
"They were saying, 'f ... Arabs', 'you bitch', 'you slut' - everything. They said all Muslim mums with scarves can hang themselves with it," the student said.
"I was very upset and very angry. [Other Muslim children] at school were very angry, too."
The girl said she didn't know why she was singled out by her attackers.
Posts on social networking site Facebook claimed the attack on this girl was in response to a fight between her friends and the group who "jumped" her two weeks ago.
The girl said she called her relatives for help and by 3pm a large crowd of her family and friends had gathered at the front of the school.
They allegedly clashed with police who used capsicum spray to subdue the crowd and arrested six men and women, aged between 26 and 50, who were later charged with offences including affray, intimidation, assaulting police, resisting arrest and offensive language.
Witness Zahra Elasmar, whose two children attend the school, said Wednesday's fight was a spillover from the racist slurs made on students' Facebook pages.
Facebook images obtained by The Daily Telegraph show derogatory comments made about other students including "lebs are rats!" .
Mrs Elasmar said she wrote to the Department of Education and Training about racism at the school and, with other parents, met with DET representatives, school staff and police liaison last month.
She said she collected 50 signatures on a petition sent to officials, but that it had fallen on deaf ears.
"The principal doesn't know how to deal with this," she said.
"What we witnessed today is not right in a multicultural country. We don't want another Cronulla [riot] at Hoxton Park."
A Department of Education and Training spokesman said the School Education Director will meet with Mrs Elasmar "soon" and that students who engage in racist or other anti-social behaviour are "disciplined".
Another parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said his son was attacked last year by "Leb students".
"He can protect himself, but I was worried," he said.
It was this brawl which caused the subsequent near-riot at the Green Valley Police Station.
While a police media release claimed only 40 supporters of the six people arrested over the school fight congregated outside the station, a police incident report obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows worried officers called in backup from units from across the South-Western Sydney command.
The report said police estimated "between 80 to 100" people - predominately young men - surrounded the police station.
When a breakaway group tried to storm the station, police found themselves "faced with a real danger and the possibility of a volatile and violent confrontation resulting in the urgent call for assistance".
Police with the assistance of surrounding local area commands, the dog squad and highway patrol officers took two hours to bring the large and angry group under control.
News.com.AU
