Minister Wiersma wants a firmer approach to bullying and other undesirable behavior at school. There will be an independent hotline for students and parents. Schools are also required to report students who carry weapons and use violence, and the Inspectorate will intervene sooner and harder.
“Every student should feel safe and free at school. Because how can you get the best out of yourself if you are being bullied day in day out and have nowhere to go, nowhere really helped? How lonely do you feel?” the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education.
Wiersma calls it a “painful reality” that about one in ten students did not feel safe at school last year. So there are tens of thousands. Girls were more often victims of sexually inappropriate behavior than in 2018.
The sense of safety of LGBTI pupils has also deteriorated compared to 2018. They were more often intentionally harassed by others last year, and students are also less likely to be friends with LGBTI students and least likely to be friends with transgender girls.
‘Teachers also bully’
According to the minister, even teachers are sometimes guilty of transgressive behavior towards students. This happens more often in secondary education than in primary schools. This sometimes also involves sexually transgressive behaviour. “As a parent, you will only be told that your child is being groped by a teacher at school,” he writes.
Wiersma wants to ensure that parents, students and schools can report bullying and transgressive behavior more easily, and that something is actually done about the complaints. He also wants to prevent the spread of ideas in classes that are anti-democratic or otherwise do not belong under the rule of law.
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