‘Can it really be this bad?’: racism in schools shocks South Australia’s children’s tsar

South Australia’s children’s commissioner, Helen Connolly, says she was shocked by the pervasiveness of racism in schools. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP

Tales of schoolchildren pulling off girls’ hijabs, using the N-word, and accusing other kids of being terrorists have “shocked” Helen Connolly, the South Australian commissioner for children and young people.

“I kept thinking ‘is this right?’,” she said.