According to the COC, thousands of schools are participating today in the fifteenth edition of Purple Friday, the annual event that emphasizes that everyone can be themselves without being bullied. And this particularly concerns students who are part of the LGBTI+ community.
The motto this year is Together for the entire class, together for the entire school. The COC had approximately 1,900 participating primary schools and a thousand secondary schools and vocational colleges. One of the participating secondary schools is Volta in Beilen.
Upon entering it is immediately clear: a table with a purple cloth and all kinds of purple and rainbow things on it. A few students and two teachers man the purple post, all dressed in purple to a greater or lesser extent.
Mathematics teacher Karin: “The initiative came from two students a few years ago. They had heard of Purple Friday and came to me with the question ‘can we do something with that?’ Well, and that group kept getting bigger.”
There is currently a group at school that meets regularly and discusses how things are going and what could be improved. “We now have a language policy at school. We think about how we address students here at school. So we no longer say ‘Hello boys and girls’ when entering the classroom, because there are students who do not feel at home there. Instead we say ‘hello everyone’ or ‘good morning everyone’,” Karin explains.
In Beilen, students can show their support by pinning on one of the homemade buttons, wearing a purple bracelet, or by having their nails painted purple. Meomi is a math teacher and also a co-organizer: “We see that students want to wear purple details to express their support, but they still find it a bit difficult to actually put on purple pants or a purple shirt.”
“Being able to pay attention to yourself without being bullied is still very necessary,” said the COC. “For example, LGBTI+ students are bullied up to four times more often than other students and ‘gay’ is the most commonly used swear word at school. Suicide rates among LGBTI+ young people are almost five times higher than average,” the organization says.
A study by RTL Nieuwspanel shows that three-quarters of secondary schools participate in Purple Friday, but that opinions about it are widely divided in wider society. A third of more than 19,000 members of the panel reacted negatively to the initiative. They believe it would emphasize differences between young people.
One of the students in Beilen paints a few nails purple. “Here at school I usually feel like it is a safe environment,” she says. “Although we are regularly called names or people ask a lot of questions about it, that can still be annoying.”
She calls it “great that the school is drawing attention to it in this way”, and adds that it “can certainly be improved”. “The end goal is that you work hard to ensure that everyone can be who they want to be.”