School That Forced Gay Students To Come Out Will Suffer No Repercussions (Netherlands)

 

A school where staff forced pupils to come out as gay to their parents will not be prosecuted for breaching the discrimination law. 

The prosecution service (OM) said the Gomarus school community in Gorinchem had changed its policy since the incidents from 2016 came to light and no longer discriminated against pupils on the basis of their sexual orientation. A criminal inquiry was launched into the 1,700-pupil secondary school, which is aligned with the strict Protestant reformist church after former pupils told NRC they had been blackmailed by staff into declaring their sexuality to their parents. -advertentie- At least one pupil reached a settlement with the school after threatening to take legal action over the way it had treated her, the newspaper reported. 

The revelations were roundly condemned in parliament when they came to light, with socialist party (SP) MP Peter Kwint describing the school’s behavior as ‘state-subsidized child abuse’. Justice officials found the school had broken the law by forcing the children to reveal their sexuality and using outdated rulebooks that incited discrimination against them, which made the building an unsafe place for homosexual students but decided not to bring charges. A spokesman for the OM said: ‘No new incidents have been made known to the investigation team since 2016 and the school had amended its policy.’ 

He added that those affected could challenge the decision through an article 12 procedure, where citizens can ask the courts to order a prosecution if they disagreed with it. Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl The DutchNews.nl team would like to thank all the generous readers who have made a donation in recent weeks. Your financial support has helped us to expand our coverage of the coronavirus crisis into the evenings and weekends and make sure you are kept up to date with the latest developments. DutchNews.nl

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